During remarks at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden claimed his administration didn't anticipate the rapid onset and spread of the latest Wuhan coronavirus variant.
"COVID is spreading so rapidly, if you notice. It just, just happened almost overnight, just in the last month," Biden said. "It's not a failure, but the alarm bell went off. I don't think anybody anticipated that this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did."
But during an interview with Fox News later in the day, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky claimed the administration was prepared for the situation.
"This pace, the speed by which Omicron has been, you know, transmitting has been seen and mired in other countries so we've been watching this carefully, we anticipated this and this is what we've been preparing for," Walensky said. "There have been doubling times in other countries that have had the virus before us in the 1.5-3 day range. This is exactly what we anticipated."
Meanwhile, Americans are waiting in long lines for rapid tests in cities around the country.
As a result of the Biden Administration's lackluster Covid testing strategy, Americans are left waiting in line for hours at testing sites.
— America Rising (@AmericaRising) December 22, 2021
The National Desk reports: "It's getting impossible for people to find home testing kits." pic.twitter.com/gZXHoJKkwm