White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is being asked about President Joe Biden’s vow to “shut down” the COVID-19 pandemic in the wake of the discovery of another variant.
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked, “What ever happened to President Biden’s promise to shut down the virus?”
“We’re working on it, Peter,” Psaki responded.
Doocy asked if the administration wants Americans to “wrap their heads” around the idea that “the president instead of shutting down the virus is going to help people live amidst the virus and go about their lives, but Covid is going to be here.”
“We need approximately about 20% of the population or more people than are currently vaccinated to go get vaccinated and go get boosted. What we can do, as the federal government, is make those vaccines free, make the boosters free, make them available,” Psaki said.
She added, “But we need the American people to do more, who are not vaccinated, to help us continue to fight the virus.”
Watch the video below:
DOOCY: "What ever happened to President Biden's promise to shut down the virus?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 1, 2021
PSAKI: "We're working on it, Peter."
"We need the American people to do more," she continued. pic.twitter.com/W4FdUseocY
Doocy’s comments appear to refer to a line used by Biden during the presidential campaign. In Oct. 2020, he tweeted, “I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus.”
I'm not going to shut down the country.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 30, 2020
I'm not going to shut down the economy.
I'm going to shut down the virus.
Earlier this year, the number of new cases of the virus reported each day decreased as vaccines became widely available.
On July 4, Biden said, “Today, we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus. That’s not to say the battle against COVID-19 is over. We’ve got a lot more work to do.”
“Thanks to our heroic vaccine effort, we’ve gained the upper hand against this virus. We can live our lives, our kids can go back to school, our economy is roaring back,” he added.
However, the number of daily new infections ticked back up as the Delta variant spread in the U.S.
Last week, the Omicron variant was discovered, which led at least 70 countries and territories to implement new travel restrictions on several African countries.
On Monday, Biden said, “This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
“We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed,” he added as he said the administration is “prepared if needed” to implement new measures.
Still, he ruled out the potential of lockdowns to curb the spread of the variant “for now.”
The Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is considering requiring “everyone entering the country to be tested one day before boarding flights, regardless of their vaccination status or country of departure.”
Additionally, they are mulling another proposal that would require all travelers to the country, including U.S. citizens, to quarantine for seven days even if they receive a negative coronavirus test.
