President Joe Biden 's chief of staff Ron Klain has been ridiculed for retweeting a news column that called 2021 not 'all bad...
President Joe Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain has been ridiculed for retweeting a news column that called 2021 not 'all bad'.
Klain was accused of being 'out of touch' after he retweeted the column which had the headline, 'Let's be honest: 2021 wasn't all bad'.
The White House chief of staff retweeted the article, written by Albert Hunt, the former editor of Bloomberg News, and published in The Hill, and wrote: 'A look back at 2021!'.
Within minutes of Klain retweeting the column, Americans accused the official of 'living under a rock' and questioned whether his tweet was satire as the US faces a surge in Covid cases caused by the Omicron variant.
Other Twitter users pointed to the controversial US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the more than 800,000 people killed by Covid and high gas prices as evidence that Klain was 'out of touch'.
President Joe Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain (pictured) has been ridiculed for retweeting a news column that called 2021 not 'all bad'
The White House chief of staff retweeted the article, written by Albert Hunt, the former editor of Bloomberg News, and published in The Hill , and wrote: 'A look back at 2021!'
In the column, Hunt was optimistic about the state of the U.S. but recognised the issues Biden's administration faced, calling the 5 per cent inflation rate 'worrisome'.
The writer wrote that for some, the 'most positive development of 2021' is that former President Donald Trump is no longer in the White House.
Hunt acknowledged that Covid has posed a challenge to the US, and could 'unsettle' the economy, but was largely optimistic as he wrote the 'economy is humming'.
He pointed to an unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent and 'total wages, including extra hours of work, are slightly outpacing inflation.'
Hunt also acknowledged that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this year 'was painful' and 'politically costly' for Biden, but he wrote that there was 'no good ending' after 20 years of war that had cost $2 trillion and thousands of lives.
In the column, Hunt was optimistic about the state of the U.S. but recognised the issues Biden's administration faced, calling the 5 per cent inflation rate 'worrisome'. Pictured: Biden departs from mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, in Washington, DC, on December 26
Klain's retweet came at a time when the US is grappling with the Omicron variant which is sending Covid cases surging across the country.
The country has recorded more than 800,000 Covid deaths, with a Reuters tally showing that the virus has cost more lives in 2021 than in 2020.
Biden's administration has also introduced vaccine mandates for businesses and healthcare workers, with many losing their jobs as a result.
Many social media users criticised Klain for reweeting the column, with some accusing him of having lost touch with the realities faced by Americans.
One user wrote: 'Am I the only one that finds this tweet by the White House Chief of Staff completely out of touch with the reality we've all been living the past year?'
Another quipped: 'Afghanistan leaving Americans behind, Delta, Omicron, mandate job losses, inflation, supplies shortages... No not all bad.'
One user accused Klain of 'living under a rock' while another asked, 'Is this satire?'
Some have criticised Biden's response to the pandemic and that Americans are facing the fastest inflation in decades, according to Bloomberg.
It comes as long lines have formed outside of health care clinics throughout the country yet again as Americans scramble to get tested for what Fauci has described as an 'extraordinarily contagious' variant.
Confirmed Omicron cases in the country have jumped from 4,644 on Christmas Day to 6,530 on Sunday. That is a 41 percent jump in just 24 hours.
But those numbers represent just a tiny fraction of the true total, because the US only sequences a very small proportion of positive PCR tests to identify which strain caused a person's infection.
The CDC estimates that at least 73 percent of all new COVID infections are being caused by Omicron, with that figure as high as 92 percent in five states including New York and New Jersey.
America has now reported 128,676 new cases of COVID-19 with 27 new deaths reported on Sunday. Deaths have lagged because of Christmas Day, and will likely be higher than usual on Monday as the backlog begins to get recorded.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden promised to deliver 500 million COVID tests to Americans - but had not yet signed a contract to buy them or set up a website so that people can place orders.
'That's not a plan - it's a hope,' Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The New York Time .
'If those tests came in January and February, that could have an impact, but if they are spread out over 10 to 12 months, I'm not sure what kind of impact it is going to have.'
The tests will be delivered by mail to any American who requests them, ABC News reports and a website to request the tests is set to launch in January.
Amazon, Walgreens and CVS have already imposed limits on how many tests each customer can buy because of the surging demand.
On Wednesday, ABC News' World News Tonight anchor David Muir asked the president if that the lack of testing is a failure of his administration despite his promise.
'I don't think it's a failure,' the president said. 'You could argue that we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago... I wish I had thought about ordering' the 500 million tests 'two months ago.
But, he added, 'nothing's been good enough' when it comes to the availability of at-home tests.'
Officials now warn that the virus could infect 140 million people between January and March - 60 percent of all Americans, although 90 per cent of those who catch COVID are predicted to have no symptoms. Three studies published in the last day have confirmed the strain is milder than Delta, and may result in up to 80 per cent fewer hospitalizations.
The third wave of the pandemic caused by Omicron has wrought havoc on Americans' Christmas plans.
Airlines scrapped more than 600 flights Sunday due to weather and the virus surge, with the Biden administration announcing it would lift the ban imposed on eight African countries in response to Omicron on New Year's Eve.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he will limit the number of revelers in Times Square for New Years Eve to 15,000, down from a planned 58,000, and attendees will need to wear masks and show proof of vaccination.
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