Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) declared Thursday that “real America” is done with COVID-19 ― a day after the first case of the new omicron variant was found in the U.S. and as coronavirus infections rise around the country, including in his own state.
“Real America is done with #COVID19,” Jordan tweeted, ignoring data, experts and reality. “The only people who don’t understand that are Fauci and Biden.”
He is referring to, of course, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and President Joe Biden. Both have renewed their urgent calls for Americans to get fully vaccinated and get to booster shots to avoid potentially getting seriously ill or dying from contracting the virus.
The World Health Organization has warned that the omicron variant, which has been found in 24 countries so far, poses a “very high” global risk because of the possibility that it spreads more easily. It also may resist vaccines and immunity in people who have been infected with previous strains.
“This variant is a cause for concern,” Biden said Monday at the White House. “Not a cause for panic.”
There were 119,604 new reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States on Tuesday, according to a data tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of reported daily cases in the country has slowly ticked up this week: Over the past four days, it has jumped from 49,054 to 52,354 to 102,759 to 119,604.
Jordan’s home state is seeing an increase in cases, too. There were 6,745 new reported cases in Ohio on Tuesday, per the CDC’s data tracker. The day before, there were 5,731 cases. The day before that, there were 4,245 cases.
Just a couple of weeks ago, health experts in northeast Ohio warned that COVID cases were rising at an alarming rate as flu season set in.
“Now we are starting to see flu and influenza creep into the picture,” Erie County Board of Health Commissioner Pete Schade told Ohio’s Fox 8. “We have several people in our COVID wards fighting this virus.”
More than 780,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since March 2020.
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