Every time President Joe Biden crawls out of his tomb in the White House, he has an update on the tremendous progress his administration has had defeating the coronavirus. And yet every time, he tells us that we will still have to keep a mask (preferably two) plastered to our faces and continue avoiding anyone outside our immediate households.
He did it again Wednesday during his address to the joint session of Congress.
“After just 100 days, I can report to the nation, America is on the move again,” he said. Later, he said, “After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for a takeoff, in my view.”
He said that “we’re already seeing the results” of his multitrillion-dollar “American Rescue Plan,” that “every federal resource” is at work, and that virtually every person in the country lives an exceedingly short drive from his or her nearest vaccination site.
He could hardly contain himself bragging about his own progress.
And yet…
“There’s still more work to do to beat this virus,” he said. “We can’t let our guard down now.”
If you haven’t heard, Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave everyone a little treat this week and told us that if we’re fully vaccinated, we can — wait for it — step outside without a mask on.
You could cry tears of joy, if you’re not laughing.
Biden has been saying some iteration of “wait a little longer” for months, even as he and his aides hum a merry tune about how great things are with low death rates and vaccines that have flooded the market.
“It’s going to be a little while,” Biden said at the end of March. A week before, he said, “Now is not the time to let down our guard.”
Two weeks before that, he said, “This is not the time to let up” and “just as we are emerging from a dark winter into a hopeful spring and summer is not the time to not stick with the rules.”
The week before that, he said, “Now is not the time to let up.”
On Feb. 26, he said, “It’s not the time to relax.”
It’s amazing — no matter how great Biden says he’s doing on the pandemic, it’s like we’re still living in April 2020!
Take some consolation, though, in that the president still hopes you can have a small outdoor gathering of close family members on Independence Day. But when that day comes, when you would have done that regardless of Biden’s advisement, expect him to tell us again that “now is not the time to let up! There’s still more work to do to beat this virus!”
And Democrats like it that way.
