An old tweet from White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain criticizing the shortage of coronavirus tests in June of 2020 is coming back to haunt him as the Biden administration struggles amid a testing shortage.
“Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. We are the richest country on Earth, and we don’t have enough SWABS. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed,” Klain tweeted June 26, 2020.
Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. We are the richest country on Earth, and we don’t have enough SWABS. Testing still isn’t fixed. Testing still isn’t fixed. pic.twitter.com/aa3oxDASl1
— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) June 26, 2020
President Joe Biden recently admitted that while his administration has made efforts to make testing more available, it’s “clearly not enough.”
“We went from no over-the-counter tests in January to 36 million in October, 100 million in November and almost 200 million in December,” Biden said. “But it’s not enough. It’s clearly not enough.” (RELATED: As Americans Spend Hours In Line For COVID Tests This Christmas, Here’s A History Of Biden’s Broken Promises On Tests)
The administration announced on Dec. 21 plans to purchase 500 million at-home rapid tests that would be available free of charge for Americans who request one online.
The administration, however, rejected an October proposal that would have provided rapid, at-home COVID tests to Americans, according to Vanity Fair. The plan pushed for roughly 732 million tests per month and included information on a “Testing Surge to Prevent Holiday COVID Surge,” according to the report.