The entire nation struggles from a lack of available COVID tests because of the Biden administration's failure to secure enough of them back in October. Meanwhile, the evening news broadcasts have been perfectly happy to ignore the fact that Biden's recent insurance mandate announced today to cover tests will only lead to further shortages.
While both ABC World News Tonight and CBS Evening News didn't mention the Biden administration in the context of testing, NBC Nightly News only spent twenty-seven seconds talking about the White House's new mandate. NBC still ignored the fact that the Biden administration failed to purchase enough tests despite warning of a "winter of severe illness and death".
Nightly News anchor Lester Holt only mentioned the Biden administration's new mandate at the tail end of the segment covering the spiking Omicron variant and the shortage of tests available, when he asked NBC national correspondent Miguel Almaguer for clarification on the report that was just given:
HOLT: Miguel, if I can circle back now to this testing issue. Tonight the White House says Americans with insurance won't need to pay for at-home testing kits. What else have we learned?
ALMAGUER: Well, that's right, Lester. Hoping to expand testing, the White House says Americans with private health care insurance won't need to pay for those over-the-counter at-home COVID test kits. Consumers will instead be able to have their health care plan cover the cost upfront or be reimbursed. That policy goes into effect in five days. Lester?
Meanwhile, over at Fox News Special Report anchor Bret Baier and White House correspondent Peter Doocy covered a damming report that the Biden administration had failed to even sign the contracts to secure the 500 million COVID tests that will be subsidized by private insurance plans:
That announcement tonight from officials here is that soon insurance companies will have to pick up the cost of 8 COVID tests per person up to 32 per family of four. But, separately, officials here are announcing they still haven't even signed the contract for all those 500 million free at-home tests that they have been promising for weeks. Which means that officials here missed the window to prepare for what they have been describing as a winter of severe illness and death. And instead, they are now preparing for a surge in the spring.
This classic case of bias by omission was brought to you by Capital One and Progressive. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
To read the relevant transcripts click "expand":
NBC Nightly News
1/10/2022
7:01:43 PMLESTER HOLT: Good evening. The numbers remain staggering tonight, stretching our patience and our capacity to fix all that COVID has broken. From the millions forced to isolate at home to the emergency rooms and ICUs desperately short on staff but filled with the sick, including the very young. We've learned that over the last week more than 580,000 child COVID cases were recorded, tripling the number of cases two weeks prior. The weekly average number of new COVID cases overall is close to 700,000. The good news is the number of deaths has been stable, but the strain and stress on our hospital remains critical as more breakthrough infections happen with timely testing remaining a problem.
Also tonight an update on an Omicron-fighting vaccine that's in the works. First Miguel Almaguer with late details.
MIGUEL ALMAGUER: Tonight a new vaccine that specifically targets Omicron may be just months away. But as new COVID cases explode, our nation is likely just weeks from reaching Omicron's devastating peak, with nearly every state now a hot spot, the U.S. is closing in on 700,000 new cases a day, nearly triple last year's surge. Pfizer's new vaccine would target omicron and other variants already circulating.
ALBERT BOURLA (Pfizer CEO): This vaccine will be ready in March. I don't know if we will need it. I don't know if how it will be used. But will be ready.
ALMAGUER: In recent weeks, infections have exploded off the chart. Some five and a half million cases just this month. While most infections are mild and don't require hospitalization, in areas first hard hit by Omicron, there’s now a dramatic fight in COVID-related fatalities.
JODI PARSONS (Western Reserve Hospital ICU Nurse): There has been more deaths that I’ve seen the whole time in just one week that I normally see in a month, let alone in a day.
ALMAGUER: First detected in the U.S. six weeks ago, Omicron is decimating the workforce and quickly spreading among children. In two weeks, cases nearly tripling with well over half a million kids infected in the first week of January. It comes amid a serious shortage of hospital staff.
DR. ROBERT WACHTER (University of California San Francisco Medicine Department Chair): We have hundreds of doctors and nurses now that have COVID and are isolating because of that. There are many hospitals in the country that are simply on their knees. They are overwhelmed.
ALMAGUER: As the CDC sets the stage for a fourth shot for the immunocompromised, demand for testing remains high. Lines snaking for miles through some residential neighborhoods. Los Angeles County just shattered a pandemic record. 45,000 new cases in a single day. Many of the sick are vaccinated, even boosted.
DR. CELINE GOUNDER: You get vaccinated. You get boosted so that you don't end up in the hospital. You don't end up in a ventilator and you don't die from COVID.
HOLT: Miguel, if I can circle back now to this testing issue. Tonight the White House says Americans with insurance won't need to pay for at-home testing kits. What else have we learned?
ALMAGUER: Well, that's right, Lester. Hoping to expand testing, the White House says Americans with private health care insurance won't need to pay for those over-the-counter at-home COVID test kits. Consumers will instead be able to have their health care plan cover the cost upfront or be reimbursed. That policy goes into effect in five days. Lester?
HOLT: Miguel Almaguer, thank you.
Fox News Channel's Special Report
1/10/2022
6:00:45 PMBRET BAIER: Breaking tonight President Biden has just announced a new mandate requiring health insurance companies pick up the tab for at-home COVID tests. Private insurance would pick up 8 over-the-counter COVID tests per month starting at the end of the week. A family of four could get 32 free home COVID tests per month. The problem is at least right now, you can't find the COVID tests for insurance to pick up. The administration promises they are coming. But this comes as there are increasing concerns about confusing pandemic messaging and the credibility of the policy coming from the White House and the Centers for Disease Control. We'll talk live with former Assistant Health Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir in just a few minutes. But now we go to White House correspondent Peter Doocy live on the north lawn. Good evening, Peter.
PETER DOOCY: Good evening, Bret. That announcement tonight from officials here is that soon insurance companies will have to pick up the cost of 8 COVID tests per person up to 32 per family of four. But, separately, officials here are announcing they still haven't even signed the contract for all those 500 million free at-home tests that they have been promising for weeks. Which means that officials here missed the window to prepare for what they have been describing as a winter of severe illness and death. And instead, they are now preparing for a surge in the spring.
(...)
6:03:43 PM
DOOCY: White house officials know the numbers are rising.
JEN PSAKI: There has been unprecedented demand for tests.
DOOCY: It's unclear when officials realized that.
DOOCY: The president’s there on television talking about winter of severe illness and death. While he’s saying that publicly, why weren't you guys doing more to prepare for the winter?
PSAKI: Everyone decides where they’re going to go get a test. And we make a range of options available.
DOOCY: But the tests are hard to come by. So some of the things that officials here are saying just are not consistent with what people across the country are seeing. And that’s even though President Biden has promised to always give it to you straight from the shoulder, the good, the bad, the truth because, when it comes to COVID, he hasn't said anything since Friday. Bret?
