October 28, 2020 01:38 PM UTC

Gee Thanks, Cory: So Much For COVID Tests At 7-Eleven

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Phil Anschutz-owned Colorado Springs Gazette is very excited to report:

The White House sent 50,000 additional COVID-19 tests to Colorado in the past week to support increased testing needs resulting from recent wildfires.

The tests are BinaxNOW rapid point-of-care tests, providing results in 15 minutes…

On Oct. 21, 25,000 tests were sent for additional testing and to replace any effected tests from the wildfires. The state requested another 25,000 tests on Saturday that were sent immediately.

Sen. Cory Gardner is, as you can imagine, ebullient:

After working with the White House I’m pleased @HHSGov will send 50,000 rapid #COVID19 tests to CO to support testing needs & replace testing sites impacted by ongoing wildfires. I’ll keep fighting for Coloradans to have resources to get through #COVID19.https://t.co/RcuJ00BONx

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) October 28, 2020

President Donald Trump’s most recent messaging on the COVID-19 pandemic is that the United States, the scene of more illness and death than any other nation on Earth, was “successful” in confronting the pandemic compared to worst-case early estimates that millions of Americans could die. Similarly, if you compare Cory Gardner’s excitement about these 50,000 tests for emergency personnel and evacuees to what Gardner said all the way back in April, which feels like an eternity ago, about what he wanted to see in terms of COVID testing:

“Testing absolutely is key here,” Mr. Gardner said on “Fox & Friends.” “I’d like to see testing so ubiquitous going forward that you can go buy your Big Gulp at 7-Eleven, and you can get your COVID-19 test at the same time.” [Pols emphasis]

This is where it dawns on the reader that in both cases, the goalposts have been moved to the point of Orwellian absurdity. 227,000 Americans are dead from the virus Donald Trump promised would go away with warm weather when cases were in the dozens–and we are still very, very far from getting a COVID-19 test at 7-Eleven. This “success” in obtaining 50,000 tests is occurring against the backdrop of inestimably greater failure.

All these months later, it’s remarkable–and tragic–how little has changed.