Well, President Joe Biden finally decided to say the quiet part out loud. After months of carrying on about a national plan and the need to follow guidelines and best practices, he finally threw his hands in the air and admitted it.
This pandemic will end when the states sort out how to end it.
"Look, there is no federal solution," Biden said Monday, according to a transcript of a conversation he had with a group of governors. "This gets solved at a state level."
Now, if you've paid attention to the national trends during the pandemic you already knew this. You already knew that the states and governors hold the actual power in fighting this God-forsaken pandemic. You already knew that our experience throughout all of this was dependent on where we live. You already knew this.
But for the president of the United States to casually say the solution to this problem is with the states is jarring because it makes crystal clear that where we live matters in a way that maybe it hadn't before.
Keep in mind that he said this as the nation deals with an omicron variant that is ransacking the country. He said it as the United States reported more than half a million new cases on Monday. He said it as Texas ran out of a vital tool for fighting the virus. He said it as California saw more than 4,000 COVID hospitalizations on Sunday.