The reinfection of first lady Jill Biden with COVID-19 this week, in the midst of an accelerating surge of infections and hospitalizations across the United States, has exposed the utter farce and hypocrisy of the Biden administration declaring the pandemic over and ending the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in May.
While the first lady remains quarantined at home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, President Joe Biden has flagrantly violated the public health guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and even joked about doing so.
The CDC guidelines state that for those like Joe Biden who have knowingly been exposed to a COVID-19 patient, they must immediately wear a “high-quality mask or respirator (N95) any time you are around others inside your home or indoors in public.” They recommend testing for five full days after the known exposure, adding that for 10 days the exposed person should “Take extra precautions if you will be around people who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19.”
For the US President, these protocols are evidently mere suggestions to be discarded at his discretion. As an 80-year-old man who was already infected with COVID-19 last year, Biden is at elevated risk of severe disease, death and Long COVID if reinfected. But he has clearly become so self-deluded by the ruling class’ pandemic propaganda that he has no concern for his own health or that of others.
On Tuesday, the day after his wife tested positive, while at a ceremony honoring 81-year-old Vietnam veteran Army Captain Larry Taylor, Biden removed his KN95 mask, made a few remarks to the crowd gathered in the East Room, then pinned the Medal of Honor and stood inches from the elderly and at-risk man for a few minutes while the citation for Taylor’s award was read out loud.
At a press briefing the following day, Biden voiced his ignorance and open disdain for public health when he walked out to the podium, again unmasked, and stated while holding his KN95 mask, “I want to explain to the press, I’ve been tested again today. I’m clear across the board. But they keep telling me, because this has to be ten days or something, I got to keep wearing it.” He then joked, “But don’t tell them I didn’t wear it when I walked in.”
These callous and stupid remarks were widely denounced on social media by principled scientists and anti-COVID advocates. In stark contrast, no reporters at the press briefing raised the slightest criticism. Were there a single principled journalist in the room, they would have asked any variation of the following questions, or more:
- If the pandemic is really over, then how did your wife become reinfected?
- If the White House is abiding by pandemic protocols such as testing, then shouldn’t the rest of the nation?
- What type of example are you setting by joking about mask-wearing and using ineffective KN95 masks, when ample research has shown that consistently wearing N95 or better respirators has been proven to prevent COVID infection and transmission?
In a tweet Wednesday, WSWS International Editorial Board chairman David North commented, “The COVID reinfection of 72-year-old Jill Biden is further evidence of the recklessness and sheer stupidity rampant throughout the Biden administration. In both its response to COVID and its Ukraine policies, a self-deluding indifference to reality and human life prevails.”
For the time being, Biden has continued to test negative for COVID-19, but there are reports that an outbreak is spreading through the White House and Biden could easily become reinfected himself at any time. Despite his exposure to Jill Biden, the president is scheduled to fly to India on Thursday for the Group of 20 summit, clearly posing a security threat to the leaders of other countries. Under any rational public health program, this trip would be postponed for the safety of all involved.
Jill Biden’s reinfection takes place as SARS-CoV-2 levels in US wastewater are now nearly four-fold higher than in late June, corresponding to more than 620,000 daily COVID infections. Since the return of students to universities and schools in August, the trend in wastewater is only accelerating upwards.
In the US, hospitalizations are up nearly three-fold, in line with the spike in wastewater data. Weekly COVID-19 admissions were up to 17,418 for the week ending August 26, the most recent date for which data are available, after the lows seen the week ending June 24, when 6,315 people were admitted for COVID-19.
Even the World Health Organization (WHO), itself culpable in downplaying the dangers of the pandemic, warned, “We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the northern hemisphere. Deaths are increasing in some parts of the Middle East and Asia; intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalizations are increasing in several regions. Still, data are limited. Only 43 countries—less than a quarter of WHO Member States—are reporting deaths to WHO, and only 20 provide information on hospitalizations.”
As the latest, hidden surge of the pandemic deepens, more research continues to be published on Long COVID, which scientists estimate is now impacting hundreds of millions of people globally and causing massive impacts on the health and well-being of society.
A study recently published in The Lancet indicates that those who suffered from symptoms of muscle pain, impaired attention, shortness of breath or rapid heart rates had a less likely chance of recovering from their post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) two years later than other symptom clusters.
In their two-year prospective examination of the question, the authors also found that pre-existing medical conditions, socioeconomic factors such as educational level, and the specific symptoms mentioned were able to predict the “development of and recovery from the PCC.” They further indicated that “[A]s long as SARS-COV-2 transmission continues and few people are cured from the PCC, subjects with such disabling post-viral syndrome [ five to ten percent per infection ] will continue to accumulate and will have to be properly absorbed and managed by currently unprepared systems.”
On Wednesday, the same day Biden joked about not wearing a mask or following CDC protocols, leading Long COVID researcher David Putrino tweeted, “It’s 2023, and that means my clinic is now seeing a new generation of Long COVID patients who say, ‘I didn’t think this would happen to me, I got through the last *n* infections just fine.’ Be careful out there: viruses don’t care about the pet theories you tell yourself to feel safe.”
Clearly, the realities of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the policies in place for workers in their workplaces are far different than those experienced by the Bidens, who have access to the best healthcare and physicians in the world.
In fact, as a result of the bipartisan, manufactured “end of the pandemic,” over 5.6 million Americans have lost access to health insurance through Medicaid since April 30. The overwhelming majority of workers, who have to labor under onerous and dangerous conditions, do not have the luxury to call in sick or see a doctor, let alone receive free COVID testing or treatments.