President Biden’s tough criticism of his predecessor’s effort to make COVID-19 tests available has resurfaced while his own administration faces blowback over test shortages.
In December 2020, then President-elect Biden tried to hold Trump’s feet to the fire over his COVID-19 response and took particular issue with the lack of available testing for Americans. The Washington Post reported that Biden called it a “travesty” that the lack of testing remained an issue.
The Biden administration has suffered a political blow from critics who say it did not anticipate a new surge of infections and focused too heavily on vaccinations. Biden told governors late last month that the effort has not been enough.
“We have to do more,” he said. “We have to do better, and we will.”
Biden said it was not a failure but said the new cases led to an alarm bell going off.
Biden also added that “all of a sudden, it was like everybody rushed to the counter. There was a big, big rush, and I knew that was coming. So what I tried to do was meet with the companies and use the Defense Production Act to get a half a billion more tests and figure out how to get them to their homes, get them on the shelves in the stores. That’s what it’s all about.”
The Biden administration announced a plan to purchase 500 million at-home rapid tests for COVID-19 and distribute them for free, but health experts said the number is far below what is needed to address the omicron surge.
