The Biden administration has failed its Covid test

The White House claims to follow the science. But it has missed chance after chance to limit infection - with disastrous results

On 2 December, the White House announced its winter plans for a likely Covid surge that would come as cold temperatures and holiday plans drove people indoors. It included an alarmingly inadequate plan to get at-home tests to people.

The plan dropped nine days after scientists in South Africa had announced that they had discovered a new variant of the coronavirus, one that appeared to be even more transmissible. The US had acted quickly to ban travel from South Africa and several other southern African countries, claiming that such restrictions would slow things down" and buy time" for the US to prepare.