President Joe Biden finally tested negative for COVID Saturday after first contracting the disease on July 21. It’s not the first time he’s tested negative since he got the ‘Rona; in fact, he was cleared five days following that initial diagnosis after being treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid. He tested positive once again on July 30 in what doctors call a “rare” rebound case. Interestingly, Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also suffered such a rebound case in June and described the effects as “much worse than the first go-around.”

Joe will remain isolated at the White House until a second negative test, which they hope will occur Sunday morning. By my count, it’s been 16 days since news broke of the first positive result. To be fair, it’s not as if he’s been the Hardest Working President before now, taking vacations regularly.

His extended illness has brought into question the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines and ever-more-frequent boosters:

Biden, July 2021: “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations”

Biden after 4 vaccination doses in July-August 2022: Tests positive for COVID for the 7th straight day https://t.co/QCUubVmSpV

— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) August 5, 2022

I brought you the story on July 24 about how many critics of the vaccine and mask mandates felt they had an “I told you so” moment after Biden initially tested positive despite taking every possible precaution that Fauci and the CDC recommended.

What are these so-called rare rebound Paxlovid cases? CNBC reports:

Some patients who took Pfizer’s Paxlovid after contracting the coronavirus have reported the same phenomenon: Days after they finished a five-day course of the oral drug and felt better, their Covid symptoms or a positive test result returned…

Roughly 5% of the tens of thousands of Paxlovid users have experienced rebound cases so far, White House Covid response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said at a news conference last month…

A UC San Diego School of Medicine study released in June identified “insufficient drug exposure” as the most likely cause. In that scenario, Paxlovid stops the virus in its tracks for five days, but doesn’t stick around long enough to purge the infection entirely — allowing the virus to temporarily replicate again once the drug is gone.

Biden hasn’t been invisible, though, making appearances by teleprompter that even his aides maybe wish he’d skipped. My colleague Bonchie reported on how he’s been stumbling and bumbling even worse than usual and one point claimed he was the vice president. Possibly even worse, he flouted his own administration’s COVID rules for infected people on more than one occasion. This seemed especially hypocritical after he’s been lecturing the population for two years on COVID safety and has presided over an administration that forced thousands to lose their jobs over their vaccine status. He also kicked out 57,000 Army National Guard and Army Reserve for refusing the jabs.

Meanwhile, the world has seemed to get along just fine without him:

Biden disappeared, we’re assured it’s due to weeks’ long Covid. But the agenda moves forward. If you needed proof Biden wasn’t ever in control, now it’s incontrovertible.

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 5, 2022

Of course, this administration is not about to ease off its restrictive policies anytime soon. Politico reports Saturday:

The Biden administration is expected to extend the Covid-19 public health emergency once again, ensuring that federal measures expanding access to health coverage, vaccines and treatments remain in place beyond the midterm elections, three people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO.

Given that our health authorities have reacted to this virus with so many nonsensical plans at the federal and local level—arresting a paddleboarder in Malibu, banning the purchase of seeds in Michigan, the list goes on and on—it’s getting harder and harder to have any faith in them. Add “Paxlovid rebound” and monkeypox to the list of things that are supposed to keep you up at night.