- President Joe Biden downplayed the run on COVID-19 tests amid the Omicron surge.
- Biden said "I don't think anybody anticipated" the rapid spread.
- Top health experts warned of Omicron's pace after it was identified in South Africa.
In a special address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden dismissed a question on whether his administration failed to provide adequate COVID-19 testing as the Omicron variant has sent cases surging nationwide.
"I don't think anybody anticipated this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did," Biden said.
—ABC News (@ABC) December 21, 2021
Infectious disease experts warned in early December that the Omicron variant could become the dominant coronavirus strain worldwide, and it now accounts for more than 70% of cases in the US.
Within the past week, testing capacity has been strained in several major cities, leading to long lines and providers running out of tests amid another supply chain shortage.
As Insider reported on Dec. 3, half of US states were already worried they would run out of testing kits.
In a Dec. 9 article in New York Magazine's Intelligencer, Dr. Michael Osterholm, one of the top worldwide coronavirus experts, said the Omicron variant would overtake its Delta counterpart in a matter of weeks, calling the latest variant a prime candidate for "king of the virus hill."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration's top public health expert and the president's chief medical advisor, called Omicron "the most transmissible virus of COVID that we have had to deal with thus far" at a Dec. 16 US Chamber of Commerce forum.
"I think Omicron is going to be remarkable in how fast it takes," Osterholm said earlier this month. "If you look at what it took for Alpha and Delta to prevail, it took really two months before they became the dominant variants around the world, some countries sooner than others. I think you're going to see this one become the dominant variant in just a matter of weeks."