The president took stock of the Covid emergency by speaking to the country from the White house. “Go get vaccinated, it’s a patriotic duty”
Five hundred million tests for Covid sent to Americans in January. A thousand doctors and military nurses sent to help hospitals that will be hit by another pandemic tsunami fueled by the Omicron variant in the coming weeks. Six task forces made up of civilian doctors trained for emergencies, sent to the six most exposed states today: Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona, Vermont and New Hampshire. Numbers, those given yesterday by Joe Biden, which make headlines, but, in reality, make it clear how limited the “toolbox” is now available to the American government in the face of the new phase of the pandemic: 500 million kits means one and a half tests for every American in a country with 330 million inhabitants. A thousand doctors and military paramedics are a drop in a sea where the storm of a million infections a day is about to arrive: little more than symbolic help, a testimony of solidarity.
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Four days before Christmas, in a room of the White House crammed with festive decorations, the American leader gives one of the most difficult speeches of his presidency. Biden must reassure and warn at the same time a nation divided between frightened vaccinated and ideological opponents of vaccines, intolerant of any health constraint: a people united only by exasperation and frustration for an emergency which, despite repeated promises of victory over the coronavirus , has lasted for two years now and the end of which is not yet in sight. The data coming from South Africa and other countries suggests that the Omicron variant is less dangerous than feared, but with its high contagion capacity it poses unprecedented challenges both from the health and communication point of view. The infections could almost always turn out to be asymptomatic cases or, in any case, benign flu syndromes: hence Biden’s invitation to vaccinated Americans not to panic, not to give up, with due caution to celebrate family holidays.
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It is also a way of heartening those who fear returning to the nightmare of two years ago: «No, it’s not March 2020: Omicron is contagious but less lethal and today we are prepared for the emergency. We have 200 million Americans totally vaccinated, hospitals and intensive care are ready, we have spread everywhere mobile stations to test and vaccinate ”: it is thanks to this that new lockdowns have been avoided. But Biden can’t even risk his words sounding like an invitation to let your guard down: if it really comes even a very low percentage of cases with complications will suffice for one million infections a day to send hospitals on the ropes.
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And so here is the appeal to the people – huge in America – of the unvaccinated: «In the storm that awaits us you are the most exposed, you risk big. Get vaccinated: it is free, you will only have benefits, overcome ideological refusals ». They are no longer the menacing tones of a few months ago. Now Biden shows his conciliatory face and even clings to archenemy Donald Trump: “He also did the booster: perhaps one of the few things we get along with.”
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In short, in a country with vaccinated people still at 61.5 percent, Biden has tried not to split the speech in two parts and not to criminalize those who refuse to immunize themselves. Very hard, however, with politicians and the media who cynically use the virus to win votes or make money: “I understand those who have fears, but the doubts are fueled by information operators and even cable TVs who spread false news about viruses and therapies: you have enormous responsibilities, stop it! ». A clear reference to the Fox by Rupert Murdoch, the great network of the American right.
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December 21, 2021 (change December 22, 2021 | 00:20)
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