“Nobody saw it coming.” That was President Biden’s response when asked about the omicron covid-19 surge. “Who saw it coming?” he asked, staring incredulously. Well, Joe, you did. Your administration did.
We’ve heard it for years now: If left unchecked, the virus will mutate, creating variants that could be more transmissible and/or more deadly, and that our current vaccines may not protect as well against. This isn’t in-the-know, jargon-laden scientific community discourse. This is cable television. Dr. Anthony Fauci has discussed it ad nauseam, as have the host of doctors we see discussing covid daily. And Biden asks, “Who saw it coming?”
We can’t continue to fall back on the rhetoric of “Who saw it coming?” When there’s a school shooting, no thoughtful person can ask that; there were more than 100 school shootings in the U.S. last year. A wildfire just swept through the Denver area. Was anyone surprised? They shouldn’t be. They happen all the time now.
We need to stop shrugging our shoulders every time something horrible happens. These things aren’t unthinkable — they’re very thinkable. We all saw it coming. The question the president should be asking is, “What am I going to do about it?”
Conor Demers
Penn Hills