How’s ‘shutting down the virus’ going, Joe?

We are less than a month away from entering 2022 — so why does it feel like March 2020 all over again?

Cable news networks are obsessively covering the new Omicron variant of Covid-19. They are hellbent on scaring the daylights out of any unsuspecting viewer who accidentally flips onto their programs. To be fair, the media is taking cues from the president. According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration is reportedly weighing up a seven-day self-quarantine for all travelers arriving on our shores, regardless of vaccination status, including US citizens and permanent residents. Travel bans, which fell out of fashion in the Trump years because they were “xenophobic”, are suddenly back in vogue.

It all begs the question: didn’t Joe Biden promise to shut down the virus?

Back in October 2020, then-candidate Biden — or whoever was running his Twitter account at the time — proudly tweeted, “I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus.” That’s right. Joe was going to shut down the virus all while eating ice cream, wearing aviators and saying things like “God love ya.”

Unfortunately that tweet has aged about as well as the president. The only thing Biden has shut down since taking over in January is the Keystone XL Pipeline.

We are now eleven months into the Biden presidency and more people have died from Covid on Joe’s watch than under his predecessor. You might think that counting and comparing deaths in order to score political points is ghoulish and unproductive. I’d agree. But since Biden gladly used this tactic during a 2020 debate with Trump, it’s only fair he be held to his own standard.

“Two hundred and twenty thousand Americans dead. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this. Anyone who’s responsible for not taking control — in fact, not saying, I take no responsibility, initially — anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.”

Someone should have reminded Biden that, as Jen Psaki always says, context is important.

Donald Trump was president when the coronavirus first spread to the United States. The crisis gave Biden and his army of trained seals in the media a perfect opportunity for to do what they do best: Monday-morning quarterback all of Orange Man’s decisions.

President Trump was dealing with an unknown quantity — but that did not matter to his critics. Every move he made was the wrong one, according to the left.

He was ridiculed for suggesting a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year. He was right. He was smeared as racist for his decision to ban flights from China and Europe. Anthony Fauci later admitted that Trump’s decision had saved lives. He was even dismissed as a conspiracy theorist for suggesting the virus could have originated from the Wuhan lab and not a wet market in Wuhan. A few months later, Jon Stewart received adoring praise from the media for saying the same thing. In other words, for a guy dealing with so many unknowns, Trump was on the money a lot.

None of that mattered to compassionate Joe. It was Orange Man’s fault and the deaths were his responsibility. Period, no joke.

Does Biden stand by that statement now that he has passed his own grim milestone? The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Biden had surpassed 350,000 Covid deaths since his inauguration.

Unlike Trump, Biden had some major advantages when he scuffled into the White House on January 21. The Covid-19 vaccines had been developed, thanks in no small part to Operation Warp Speed, and were already being distributed across the country. The medical community knew far more information about how the virus spread and who was most at-risk of getting seriously ill. In other words, besides maybe Barack Obama, no one really thought Joe Biden could mess things up. We underestimated him.

Fast forward to this week and rather than addressing his own failings or taking questions about his broken promises, the president is rambling on about Cabbage Patch Kids and making TikToks with Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Meanwhile, the rest of his administration is busy preparing Americans for Pandemic 2.0. As these officials start issuing new orders and telling us “nothing is off the table” to stop the spread, for most people it feels like a case of déjà flu.

Dr. Fauci is back to his round-the-clock appearances on MSNBC and CNN where he offers his opinion on Rand Paul, Christmas gatherings and booster shots.

Hospitals are postponing elective surgeries.

Politicians have also returned to their favorite pastime — enforcing rules that they have no intention of obeying. Governor Gavin Newsom extended California’s state of emergency before going on a lavish, $29,000-a-night vacation in Mexico. I’m sure fears of Omicron put a dampener on his trip.

Obviously the overreactions from the media and hypocrisy from the elite is nothing new. But therein lies the problem. Biden promised something new. He promised an end to the virus and he hasn’t delivered in any way. Seeing Biden talk about vaccinations, quarantines and masking feels like watching the opening scene of a bad movie you’ve seen before.

Here’s a little piece of advice for my fellow Americans — life is too short to sit through the same crappy movie twice.