Pathetic.

The inability to secure enough timely tests for the number of people who want them has led to a new reckoning for Biden’s Covid-19 response. An enhanced strategy that includes distributing 500 million free at-home tests didn’t come in time to prevent major disruptions to holiday travel, and it remains unclear when those tests will reach Americans who want them.

Yet the failures surrounding testing have led to accusations that the White House failed to anticipate the pandemic’s course and overemphasized vaccinations as a solution to ending the crisis, even as outside experts warned of a looming test shortage directly to administration officials.

The agency did not recommend a negative test as part of the conditions for ending isolation; instead, the new recommendation is that those without symptoms can end their isolation after five days instead of 10, and wear a mask for the ensuing five days.

The step was a boon for businesses, including major airlines, which had been forced to dramatically scale back their business as employees tested positive and were unavailable to work for 10 days. Carriers including JetBlue and Delta Air Lines had lobbied the administration to shorten the isolation period for positive cases; Delta asked to cut it to five days specifically.

While the CDC said the change was “motivated by science” in its announcement Monday night, officials did not deny that a concern the Omicron wave could effectively “shut down society” had also played a role, according to one senior official. “We need people to get back to their jobs,” the official said.

Speaking on CNN, Fauci said it was imperative to ensure essential personnel were able to continue working. “With the sheer volume of new cases that we are having and that we expect to continue with Omicron, one of the things we want to be careful of is that we don’t have so many people out,” Fauci said Monday night on CNN. “If you are asymptomatic and you are infected, we want to get people back to the jobs – particularly those with essential jobs – to keep our society running smoothly.”

The conversations among officials included weighing the availability of tests, one official said, along with the imperative of allowing businesses to continue operating amid the surge. “I was very surprised that there was not a testing requirement to come out of isolation,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist who served on Biden’s coronavirus task force during the transition. “Symptoms are really not a good way of determining if someone is infectious or not.”

Like other medical experts who have been critical of the updated guidance, Gounder argued it is “irresponsible” to halve the isolation period without requiring a negative antigen test.

it’s just…not fixable. No incrementalism can ever fix this.