Joe Biden’s Political Fortunes Tied to COVID

[State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha/ Public Domain]

Will the Biden administration eventually come to the realization that its political fortunes are tied to a virus that is not going anywhere? The longer it takes to make a clean break, the likelier the President will succumb to COVID, warns Kimberley Strassel in the WSJ.

The Administration’s Inept Response

In anticipation of a rise in winter cases coupled with the arrival of the Omicron variant, the White House on Thursday released its latest list of Covid rules:

• new testing rules for international travelers
• extended its transportation mask mandate
• announced it would launch hundreds of vaccination clinics and a campaign for boosters
• distribute 25 million free tests
• allow reimbursement for home testing

Ms. Strassel asks readers, feel better yet?

Confident that this time we’ll whup the virus? Of course not.

If there’s one thing a weary world has realized, it’s that there’s no beating a highly transmissible respiratory disease. Vaccines prevent serious disease, but they don’t stop transmission. No amount of masking, social distancing or locking down has stopped the surges of the past six months, including in states like Michigan and New Mexico, which boasted about their restrictions. The virus doesn’t follow executive orders.

The Biden administration doesn’t seem to have worked this out. Instead it has created for itself a toxic COVID loop.

With each new surge it rolls out more restrictions and actions. With each failure of these measures to beat the virus, the public loses faith. Cue yet more administration rules that are designed to restore confidence, even as they are destined both to fail and to annoy the country.

The polls are reflecting the degree to which Biden’s strategy is failing. According to RealClearPolitics, Americans’ approval of Mr. Biden’s handling of the virus has fallen more than 20 points since he was sworn into office and his worst polling on the issue since taking office.

Worse for the administration, the public is showing signs that its lack of confidence is morphing into growing dislike of the president’s measures. While a majority of Americans still favor vaccine mandates, that number is slipping. Covid rules, including school masking, infuriated suburban parents and contributed to the GOP’s Virginia victories.

There’s annoyance over constantly changing directives, supposedly based on science—

• who should wear a mask where and when?
• who should get a booster when?
• whether or how much the vaccine is effective?

Americans resent the stench of politics in too many decisions—whether it be the teachers unions’ role in school-reopening guidance or Mr. Biden’s embrace of travel bans that he called “xenophobic” when Donald Trump was president.

More School Shutdowns?

The real frustration is with the administrations erratic goal posts. Biden promised Americas that the jab was the ticket back to normality and they could look forward to “a summer of joy and freedom.” Instead summer and fall brought a whole new raft of restrictions, even to those who were vaccinated.

The White House’s statement this week accompanying its new rules warns again about the possibility of school closures and business lockdowns.

Recent statements by White House advisers reflect the quality of advice the president is getting:

• Chief of staff Ron Klain this week tweeted that “Stronger COVID measures produce STRONGER ECONOMIC outcomes”—a claim that is demonstrably untrue, based on the far better economic progress of states like Florida that ended lockdowns quickly.
• Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates accused House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of “actively undermining the fight against Covid, which is driving inflation.”

Inflation is certainly spreading, warns Ms. Strassel, “but not because people are coughing it on each other.”

Political Malpractice

Politicians frequently spin the truth – promising the impossible – in order to get elected. Yet this administration seems unfazed by Biden’s growing unpopularity.

The White House had an opportunity this spring to reset its endgame. It could have taken credit for a quick vaccine rollout and for helping the country to make the transition to “living with” the virus. It could have moved off the daily obsession with case counts and positivity rates, which go up when asymptomatic people get tested. It could have used subsequent surges to redouble its vaccination message (since most new hospitalizations are still among the unvaccinated).

Who Will Stop the Madness?

What has Joe Biden touched that has not failed – energy, inflation, border security, Afghanistan, COVID?  The administration’s despotic lockdowns and unconstitutional mandates have not prevented more Americans dying under Biden’s watch than under President Trump’s.