President Joe Biden has continued working after his COVID-19 diagnosis while unmasked White House officials provide updates on his status and refuse to call for new mandates or restrictions, all of which is drawing scrutiny from the Left.
Biden released a video shortly after his diagnosis in which he reassured the public that he's doing well and continuing to fill the capacities of the presidency, standing outside the White House in a blazer and speaking without a mask."I really appreciate your inquiries and concerns, but I’m doing well, getting a lot of work done, and I’m going to continue to get it done,” he said from the Truman Balcony. “In the meantime, thanks for your concern, and keep the faith.
“I think Biden’s own COVID response is what made this [illness] inevitable, really,” Artie Vierkant, co-host of a left-leaning podcast that has promoted a universal mask mandate and paid sick leave for those with the virus, told the Washington Post. “He’s just one of tens or hundreds of thousands of people who are going to test positive for COVID today.”
The White House press corps also expressed skepticism of the Biden administration's handling of the president's case. When a reporter asked if there were any regrets about the amount of time Biden has spent unmasked in public, shaking hands, hugging people, and fist-bumping in recent days, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded,"Not at all."
The BA.5 omicron subvariant is responsible for a recent spike in infections in the United States, including many reinfections, and has proven more transmissible than the previously dominant subvariant. However, early data do not indicate that it is more severe than the first omicron variant, and data continue to show hospitalizations to be low compared to earlier in the pandemic.
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