#Don’t let the Omicron bug in, Joe!

Joe Biden ran for president saying he was the best person to handle the COVID-19 outbreak. His performance has been middling at best, and he needs to step up to face the most important challenge of his term so far — a dangerous new strain of the virus dubbed Omicron.

He’s right to restrict flights from eight countries, including South Africa. But it seems like Anthony Fauci again was wrong, saying just before that announcement that we don’t know enough to ban travel. It’s long past time Fauci stepped aside.

Restrictions, though, are not enough. Testing stations should be set up at international airports; even if passengers are vaccinated, we need to be on guard for breakthrough infections. Tests have become quick and inexpensive; they are a small hassle for visitors from abroad.

The feds need to coordinate with local hospitals to perform proper contact tracing and quarantining at any sign of an Omicron outbreak. COVID-19 sneaked up on the US in 2020 and was already here by the time medical experts reacted properly. There’s no excuse for the same flat-footed response this time.

Any plan that doesn’t include the southern border is irresponsible. Placating those on the left, Biden has thrown the border wide open, waving people in without any checks, including COVID. 

Biden already has been forced by the courts to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy introduced by President Donald Trump. All asylum seekers should be forced to wait outside the country. 

Biden also has Title 42 at this disposal, which allows the deportation of illegal border crossers under medical emergencies. Biden cited Title 42 for some Haitians, then backed down in the face of progressive rage. If he bows to them now, and Omicron, which is named after a Greek letter, crossed into the United States from illegal immigration, they — and he — will be directly responsible for the deaths the virus causes here.

Until now, Biden’s answer to COVID has been to lecture Americans in his whispery way to get vaccinated. Vaccinations are absolutely the right choice, but his sales pitch has been patronizing or insulting. More Americans died of COVID in 2021 than did in 2020. Now Biden has a much harder job than delivering a sale pitch. He’s got to get tough and prevent Omicron from coming to America, to prevent the societal disasters that were lockdowns.

You said you could do better, Joe. Prove it.