Biden Pushes for New COVID Vaccine 'That Works', Critics Warn of Lockdowns and 'Alarmist Tactics'
Recent headlines are giving off warning signs that the White House and other authorities are gearing up for another possible pandemic in the fall of 2023.
The Biden administration is pushing for the development of a new COVID-19 vaccine, 100 universities are requiring mask mandates, and a Hollywood studio is reinstating social-distancing measures and contact tracing. One school district in Texas has gone into lockdown already.
This has taken place just within the last three months since the White House allowed the 2020 coronavirus public health emergency to expire, nearly a year after President Biden said the pandemic was over.
But while health officials say two new COVID-19 variants are causing an increase in cases in the U.S., they admit it is not by much.
So far, there are only two cases of new BA.2.86 variant and experts have linked a recent spike in cases to a variant nicknamed "Eris" – an increase of 24 percent in the last two weeks.
"It is not necessarily more dangerous than the previous variants, but we are seeing an uptick associated with that," Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, said of "Eris".
Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told WTOP that people should not overreact to news of the BA.2.86 variant. "It doesn't have any of the critical mutations that would evade antiviral immunity," he said.
Still, Joe Biden has signed off on a proposal requesting additional funding from Congress for the development of a new COVID-19 vaccine saying there is a need for one "that works".
"I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works," Biden told reporters. "Tentatively it is recommended that it will likely be recommended everybody get it no matter whether they've gotten it before or not."
Additionally, his administration is telling Americans to keep getting the current vaccine despite relatively low hospitalizations and mild symptoms comparable to a cold or the flu.
"Vaccinations against COVID-19 remains the safest protection for avoiding hospitalization, long-term health outcomes, and death," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. "Which is why we are going to be encouraging Americans to stay up to date on their vaccines."
The updated COVID-19 vaccine will reportedly contain one version of the omicron strain called XBB.1.5.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $1.4 billion to defense contractors and pharmaceutical companies for more Covid "countermeasures" and vaccines.
Will Witt, editor-in-chief of the Florida Standard, claims the Biden administration is not-so-secretly gearing up for another lockdown.
"The Covid fanatics' nonsense never seems to end. In 20 years, we will still probably be prepping for our next lockdown and queuing for our 100th booster shot. And why would it end? Biden's Project NextGen proves that no lessons have been learned from the last set of pandemic restrictions," Witt wrote in The Telegraph.
"We the people are sick of it and are starting to resist. Only 17% of Americans got their Covid booster shot according to CDC data. Americans constantly read alarmist stories about new variants and potential future lockdowns, and have started saying 'hell no' to the tyranny," he said.
Other critics contend most Americans are not falling for the bait of "alarmist tactics".
Tactics such as a recent CNN article that opens, "If you're at high risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19, it's time to dust off those N95 masks and place them snugly over your nose and mouth to protect yourself from a recent uptick of the virus."
Then there's the Biden administration's appointment of Mandy Cohen as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Stephen Moore, a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, nicknamed Cohen the "North Carolina lockdown artist" and warns that the new director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, was Alabama's "leading TV COVID-panic merchant."
"At one time, she crazily estimated the death rate from COVID would be 10%, 20 times higher than the actual rate. How can people so wrong be promoted," he asked.
"Because the fear-mongering left can't wait to install new lockdowns every time we have a new flu virus and health scare," he stated.
Noah Rothman, author of The Rise of the New Puritans, argues that people "must all loudly and unambiguously say 'no' to mandatory pandemic-mitigation measures."
"There can be no doubt that, in the last month, a powerful coalition of the perpetually anxious has floated trial balloon after trial balloon, testing your willingness to acquiesce to renewed restrictions on your social and economic activity," he explained.
He added, "If the balloons float by without so much as a scoff, that will only serve as proof of concept. It's incumbent on all of us to say, loudly and unambiguously, whenever we encounter too-clever appeals to our sense of solidarity or paranoia in the effort to bring pandemic-mitigation measures back: No."
Along those lines, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has flatly stated he will not approve Biden's request for additional funding for a new COVID-19 vaccine.
So to recap:
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 27, 2023
1. @POTUS is saying the vaccine they’re currently promoting and they mandated DOES NOT work
2. He wants more funding for another one
That’s a NO from me. https://t.co/biBqPYMJ2C
"That's a NO from me," he wrote on X, formerly called Twitter.
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