‘WE DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN FROM HERE’ — At the very least, Joe Biden deserves points for honesty. With case counts exploding, testing wait times ticking up and hospitals bracing for a surge of new patients, Biden on Tuesday came out and just said it: “I don’t think anybody anticipated that this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did.” The admission — which came after his second Covid-focused speech in less than a month — reflects the degree to which Omicron has upended the White House’s best-laid plans, and further scrambled our perception of what was supposed to be a triumphant year in the battle against Covid-19. The situation today is not nearly as bad as it was a year ago — that much is clear. Highly effective vaccines are widely available, masks and protective gear are plentiful, antiviral pills are right around the corner and the economy is open and on the upswing. When vaccinated people do get infected, they now rarely require hospitalization. But things are also not as good as we’d hoped. Sure, schools are open — but quarantines and virtual learning are just a positive test away. Vaccines are free and easy to find — but those most at risk refuse to get them. The economy is humming — but fraught with battles over mandates and mask requirements. And around every corner is still a sense of peril. Everyday life is riddled with anxieties tied to potential exposures and degrees of risk and, increasingly, the hunt for rapid tests. Omicron has magnified that, serving as a blunt reminder that the public health threat won’t be beholden to political cycles or broader public fatigue. All that’s put Biden in a tough spot after a year in office. The president’s approval ratings are hitting fresh lows, he has dwindling tools at his disposal and polls show fewer people are even willing to listen to him amid hardening partisanship, POLITICO’s Joanne Kenen writes. Even as Biden announced plans to give out 500 million free rapid tests — a widely popular idea — reporters and health experts were quick to point out it’d do little to make an immediate impact in the face of what will likely be a winter of record case infections (POLITICO’s David Lim broke it down best here). Administration officials are clinging on to some hope, though: Early indications are that Omicron is less severe than its predecessors, booster shots are providing significant protection and there’s hope the resurgence will flame out quickly. Yet even if we avert the worst, it’s clear the Covid-19 will be around far longer than the White House wanted — and a satisfying conclusion to the pandemic battle may already be out of reach. “We don’t know what’s going to happen from here,” Biden said Tuesday of Omicron’s trajectory, a sentiment that could arguably be applied to the broader pandemic and the political fortunes tied to it. “We don’t know.” HOSPITALS IN LIMBO WITH VAX MANDATE BRAWL — With Omicron cases surging and health workers in short supply, hospitals and nursing homes are grappling with a patchwork of rules for vaccinating their staff against Covid-19 — and in some cases, begging off immunization requirements the Biden administration expects to start enforcing on Jan. 4. Court challenges brought by mostly Republican states have frozen the administration’s vaccine mandates for health workers in half of the states, upsetting an already delicate balance between patient safety and pandemic readiness as health facilities brace for a wintertime surge of cases, POLITICO’s Rachael Levy writes. That’s left federal regulators in a thorny position. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could follow through on Biden’s requirement with CMS-funded providers but will likely face its own legal battles. The trade group for nursing home operators, for instance, is urging the administration to go slow because of the legal uncertainty, while a major hospital trade group isn’t expecting a resolution for weeks to come. The standoff will likely drag into the new year, possibly until the Supreme Court weighs in on the mandate’s constitutionality. One lobbyist said CMS lawyers have urged leadership to abandon the scheduled enforcement plans, including those in states where the mandate can take effect. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice asked justices last week to let the mandate go forward. | 
