Tipsheet

Biden's Booster Event Warns of Emergency Despite Recent Comments 'Pandemic Is Over'

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 25, 2022 6:00 PM

On Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden engaged in quite the fear-mongering as he promoted yet another booster against COVID-19. Part of that included a claim that people need to receive this booster because we are in a "global health emergency" and that "if we want to put COVID behind us, we have to keep up the fight together." Such remarks are even more stunning, given that just over a month ago, Biden emphasized how the "pandemic is over" during a "60 Minutes" interview. This was in response to those offering "we don’t need COVID funding." The president and White House in recent months have continued to make a plea to Congress more more money, even after Biden declared the "pandemic is over."

Biden made such an insistence despite pointing out during the end of his remarks that "COVID cases are down by more than 80 percent from when I took office. COVID deaths are down nearly 90 percent. And now we’re in the longest stre- — stretch since the virus emerged when our hospitals are not overrun with severely ill COVID patients."

While Biden was getting the booster, a reporter asked a question wondering "is COVID still a national emergency?" The president answered in the affirmative, that "it's a necessity to deal with to make sure it doesn't become one." 

This leads to some confusion, indicating that COVID may in fact not actually be "a national emergency," though the president is still fear-mongering about boosters. Earlier this month, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) also extended the public health emergency yet again, which will last until January, that is if it's not renewed again. 

Biden's remarks overall were full of problematic remarks as well. As the president has done at past events promoting the COVID vaccines and boosters, he demanded that more people get vaccinated, especially when it comes to how he claimed "the truth is not enough people are getting it," which "we have to change." This is Americans want to "all have a safe and healthy holiday season," as if they wouldn't be able to without getting their fifth vaccine. 

Recommended

Matt Gaetz Withdraws Attorney General Nomination Matt Vespa
Why Again Do We Still Have a Special Relationship With the Tyrannical UK? Kurt Schlichter

Ahead of the changing weather as the country heads into colder weather, Biden warned more Americans will get COVID, which "will spread considerably more easily." He didn't stop there, though. Like the president, who has himself gotten COVID despite being fully vaccinated and boosted at the time, has done in the past, he had a specific message of doom and gloom for the unvaccinated.

"Here’s the bottom line: Virtually every COVID death in America is preventable — virtually every one," he claimed. "Almost everyone who will die from COVID this year will not be up to date on their shots or they will not have taken Paxlovid when they got sick."

Biden even had the nerve to say "as we enter this new moment in the battle against COVID, let’s use it to start fresh as a country, to put all the old battles over COVID behind us, to put all the partisan politics aside," as if that is supposed to exude demonization of the unvaccinated. 

Lest one think that this will be the last booster one will have to take in order to be told they're fully protected from the virus, Biden, and then later White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promoted getting the shot once a year.

Also during the press briefing, Dr. Ashish Jha answered questions about Biden's remarks, specifically how Biden's declaration from last month "doesn't seem consistent with what you're describing." Dr. Jha insisted "COVID is not over" and "continues to kill several hundred Americans a day," doubling down on how it was also a "preventable death." He went on to say that "whatever terminology we use, I think the bottom line is, COVID continues to be a substantial problem and we're out there fighting it."

It's also worth mentioning that even those who have been fully vaccinated have died from COVID, when it comes to this talk about "preventable deaths."

Dr. Jha, at a press briefing earlier this month, also dismissed Biden's remarks that the "pandemic is over," during which he provided a similar response.