Joe Biden said that COVID remaining in the environment is probably “here to stay.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Biden claimed, somewhat contradictorily, that while it isn’t “here to stay” it will stay in the “environment here.”
“I don’t think COVID is here to stay but having COVID in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay,” Biden said.
BIDEN, TODAY: “Having COVID in the environment here and in the world is probably HERE TO STAY.”
BIDEN, 2020: “I’m going to shut down the virus.” pic.twitter.com/O3GE25aJCV
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 7, 2022
“COVID as we’re dealing with it now is not here to stay, the normal doesn’t have to be. We have so many more tools we developed and we continue to develop that can contain COVID and other strains of COVID,” the president added.
Biden pointed out that approximately 90 percent of schools in the nation remain open. He credited the American Rescue Act, which he signed in March, for making that possible.
There is currently a massive fight in Chicago between the city and the teachers union, as schools in the nation’s third largest district have been closed for three days due to teachers refusing to go to work.
When questioned on Thursday about former advisory board members for Biden’s health transition team saying that people need to embrace living with a “new normal,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that “the president’s goal is to defeat the virus.”
“We’re going to be able to control this. The new normal is not going to be what it is now, it’s going to be better,” the president said on Friday.
