he said solutions are going to be found at the state level. i m no medical expert. that is surprising to me. it is disappointing we are just hearing this sort of political hot air. there is a lot of important things right now the white house could be talking about that they aren t talking about. for one they need to announce a selective testing strategy. they can t recommend universal testing with the limited supply we re currently rationing and how to prioritize limited tests. they need to be talking about therapeutics. specifically say the word, there is a lack of awareness about it and the two other drugs by merck and pfizer cut covid deaths to zero. powerful tools we re not hearing about. the president touted the new policies kicking into effect is that insurance companies will reimburse american patients for the cost of their covid tests. you and i spoke a few minutes ago how the tests are understanding up to $250 a pop
communication. the fwo places i would say the administration needs to do a better job, communicating with the american people an making testing more widely available. two months ago the biden administration rejected a proposal from several public health experts for free rapid tests for the holidays. based on what many other countries are already doing. the concept the white house press secretary derided earlier this month according to vanity fair. the white house argues there wasn t enough production capacity on the market in october. in march the president signed the american rescue plan about 2 trillion, much of it to address the economy. some of the covid provisions, $6 billion to vaccine treatment and development. vaccine distribution went for $9 billion. tracing and 48 billion. genome sequencing and covid supplies and defense production act at $10 billion. testing is what they are stressing at the white house
biden rule. let s use his own standard that he applied to president trump and he was talking about how covid is out of control, we have so many people dying. anyone who is the president when you see this level of fatalities doesn t deserve to be in office. we were told at the time that the testing wasn t actually being properly handled and now we re in the exact same position. biden is failing by his own standards. thank you for your patience today. hope you had a great christmas and have a happy new year if i don t talk to you before then. snow and cold is causing major problems for post christmas travel across the wrn and northern united states. avalanche warnings in six states across the west and dangerously cold temperatures are expected m states from montana to michigan. windchills in some places will hit 55 below and the surge in
assume, gov. it is, mr. president. president biden: and here today democrats and republicans. we discussed the rise in covid cases especially coming out of the holidays. and as i said last week omicron is a source of concern but it should not be a source of panic. if you are fully vaccinated and get your booster shot you are highly protected. if you are unvaccinated you are at a high risk of getting severely ill from covid-19, being hospitalized and in rare cases even dying. this is not like march of 2020 the beginning of the pandemic. we are prepared and know what it takes to save lives, protect people and keep schools and businesses open. we just have to stay focused and continue to work together. my message to the governors is simple. if you need something, say something. and we will have your back in any way we can. last week we took steps to
substantially in the first couple of weeks and as we get into the middle of january. i ll talk to dr. marty makary about this but first rich edson at the white house this morning. testing really is the white house focus here. they re trying to get the website up so americans can order the at-home tests trying to secure 5 million of those tests. many won t be shipped the earliest until next month well after the holiday season after you have had the surge in covid cases. people having trouble getting tests, waiting in long lines for covid tests, shortages of at-home kits. president biden acknowledged last week his administration should have boosted testing availability two months ago. some health officials criticized the administration for what they say is a late push for free at-home tests. for omicron and delta the administration hasn t done enough on testing and through