Biden's big Omicron gamble


President Biden walked a fine line between sounding urgent and reassuring, concerned and confident, worried and resolute in remarks delivered at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
He downplayed the danger of the Omicron variant for Americans who've gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 and received booster shots. But he also warned of dire consequences for those who have resisted vaccination and spoke of living through a "critical moment" testing us "as a people and as a nation," demanding courage and sacrifice.
Whether Biden managed to strike the right balance is something we won't be able to judge until we've seen how events unfold over the coming weeks.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In the halting, somewhat slurred delivery we have come to expect from the president, Biden laid out ways the federal government will seek to provide Americans with support to get through the building Omicron surge. A thousand military doctors, nurses, and medics will be deployed around the country to buttress hospital staff in virus hot spots. And beginning in January, 500 million rapid at-home tests will be made available for free to anyone who needs them.
Those and other initiatives are welcome, but will they be enough? A thousand medical workers spread over a continent-wide country of 330 million people is a miniscule drop in an enormous bucket. A government that spends nearly $7 trillion a year supplying an average of 1.5 free tests per person after several weeks' delay is absurd, inadequate, and unconscionably slow. But that's all that Biden was prepared to offer.
At the conclusion of his remarks, Biden sounded defensive in response to a reporter's question about whether his administration dropped the ball in not making these and other moves sooner. That's understandable. The president wasn't wrong to point out the incredible speed of Omicron's spread. Yet it's also true that we're nearly two years into this pandemic; other countries have been handing out rapid, at-home tests for months; and the rise of new variants should have caught no one at the White House by surprise.
Biden is taking a big gamble. If Omicron continues to move quickly, surging and fading within a few weeks and proving mild for most, his restrained response will look like a cool-headed and wise reaction to fast-moving events. But if things go sideways through and after the upcoming holidays, as they often have with COVID, the president will face a lot of difficult questions about why his administration responded to a critical moment with so little urgency and alarm.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.
-
'"Andor" examines all sides of how empires operate'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
DHS chief Kristi Noem's purse stolen from eatery
Speed Read Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's purse was stolen while she dined with family at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Harvard sues Trump over frozen grant money
Speed Read The Trump administration withheld $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts after Harvard rejected its demands
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
The anger fueling the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez barnstorming tour
Talking Points The duo is drawing big anti-Trump crowds in red states
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Why the GOP is nervous about Ken Paxton's Senate run
Today's Big Question A MAGA-establishment battle with John Cornyn will be costly
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Biden slams Trump's Social Security cuts
Speed Read In his first major public address since leaving office, Biden criticized the Trump administration's 'damage' and 'destruction'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Bombs or talks: What's next in the US-Iran showdown?
Talking Points US gives Tehran a two-month deadline to deal
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?
In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
By The Week Staff
-
'There is a certain kind of strength in refusing to concede error'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US
-
Trump purports to 'void' Biden pardons
Speed Read Joe Biden's pardons of Jan. 6 committee members are not valid because they were done by autopen, says Trump
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
'Most Americans have never heard of the Office of Net Assessment'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US