The American public can trust the White House when it comes to coronavirus advice just as much as they can trust the vaccines now being pushed across the country, according to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The advice came in a wide-ranging interview with the Los Angeles Times published Sunday where Harris conceded the Biden administration was blind sided by the Delta and Omicron variants and said doubts sown by “misinformation” over vaccines will prolong the pandemic well into a third year.
Harris’s comments about coronavirus, in which she also appeared to blame the medical community for a lack of foresight, underscores the administration’s view the pandemic is its single biggest obstacle to better voter engagement ahead of next year’s midterms.
“We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not – upon whose advice and direction we have relied – didn’t see Delta coming,” Harris admitted.
“We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.”
Harris then told the public to be more trusting of vaccines and mandates, citing a slow take-up rate despite the White House and federal health officials’ every effort to drive vaccinations and boosters.
“I would take that more seriously,” Harris said of contrary views dissuading people from getting a shot.
“The biggest threat still to the American people is the threat to the unvaccinated. And most people who believe in the efficacy of the vaccine and the seriousness of the virus have been vaccinated. That troubles me deeply.”
Other subjects covered in the LA Times interview included the failed Build Back Better domestic spending plan, immigration across the porous southern border and voting rights, all significant failures for President Joe Biden and his team.
Harris said the failure to pass the $1.75tn economic and climate spending package, which Biden conceded on Friday would miss its Christmas deadline, was a frustration – but offered no alternative plan.