President Biden on Monday repeatedly mispronounced Omicron as he claimed he was on top of the potentially more contagious COVID-19 variant — before wishing reporters a “Merry Christmas” a month early.
“It’s called the Omni-cron,” Biden said, mangling the name during a midday speech in the White House Roosevelt Room.
“We’ve moved forward in the face of COVID-19 and moved forward in the face of the Delta variant. And we move forward now in the face of the Omnicron variant as well,” Biden said, repeating the mistake.
Biden spoke hours after a ban on travel to the US by non-Americans from eight southern African countries took effect. In his remarks, he urged Americans to get vaccine booster shots if they had not yet done so.
“Travel restrictions can slow the speed of Omnicron,” Biden said. “We cannot prevent it. But here’s what it does: It gives us time.”
The president’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also botched the name of the variant, which was announced last week by the World Health Organization. The WHO controversially skipped over the Greek letters Nu and Xi, the surname of Chinese President Xi Jinping to land on Omicron.
Fauci noted that as of earlier this month, most foreign citizens already had to be vaccinated and test negative for the virus before boarding a flight to the US.
“Even before Omnicron came in, we had a situation where we’ll be able to test,” Fauci said, mispronouncing the variant’s name.
About two hours later, Biden correctly said Omicron during a roundtable event with CEOs to discuss supply chain bottlenecks.
Biden took a few questions from reporters at the noon event, a rarity for the 79-year-old commander-in-chief. Biden typically takes only one or two questions at a time as opposed to the sprawling, often contentious access granted by his predecessor.
Biden called on reporters to ask questions by referring to a list prepared by his staff. When he called on “Alexis,” reporters asked the president if he meant “Alex,” saying there were two women named Alex but no Alexis.
Both Alexes, from Reuters and The Associated Press, got a question.
More so than former President Donald Trump, Biden has relied on pre-screened lists of reporters and his lack of familiarity with specific journalists was apparent — though Trump also confused reporter names on occasion.
Then, in a possible hint that he wouldn’t be available to the press much in the coming weeks, Biden wished reporters a Merry Christmas.
“I hope you all have — I’ll be speaking before then — but a Merry Christmas as we approach it,” Biden said, later adding, “I’m sure I’ll see you between now and Christmas, but hope you had a good Thanksgiving.”
