Given that the ruling was tantamount to an existential threat to the Centers for Disease Control’s ability to … you know, control disease, it was a remarkably passive way for the administration to do public health communication, let alone politics. But this is your Democratic Party on midterms: walking on eggshells, striving to avoid being divisive, and straining its metacarpal ligaments as it crosses its fingers with white-knuckle force. The administration’s pandemic mitigation strategy, such as it is, has been sucked into the 2022 election’s psychic vortex; Covid is just one more thing that might upset the pieces on this election cycle’s 11th-dimensional chess board.
As Politico’s Adam Cancryn recently reported, the Biden administration’s current policy toward Covid boils down to putting on a determinedly optimistic face in public while hyperventilating with angst behind the scenes. “The White House is publicly arguing that the country has finally arrived at a promising new stage in the pandemic fight,” writes Cancryn. “Underneath the displays of confidence, however, is simmering anxiety.” White House officials are relieved that hospitalizations are down, but simultaneously wary of rising Covid caseloads—and there’s reason to believe that new cases are currently going underreported. One “close to the White House” source characterized the mood: “They’re like, ‘We don’t know if this is something to be worried about or not.’ … But you can’t tell the public that.”
The real disappointment, to borrow Psaki’s word, is that things could have been so much different. TNR contributors Ian Beacock and Heidi Tworek long ago laid out a detailed plan for how the president, by repeatedly coupling “clear scientific information with emotional intelligence and repeated reference to democratic values,” could use presidential rhetoric to ignite the civic spirit and lead a fight against both the Covid-19 virus as well as the forces that seek to tear democracy asunder. The White House’s initial response to the overruling of the mask mandate fell dreadfully short. With the pressures of the November midterm elections only mounting, it’s hard to imagine the administration doing more public health communication—not if it’s trying to sell the idea that we’ve reached “a promising new stage” in the battle against Covid, even as there are no guarantees against future spikes caused by new variants.
This week made clear that Biden isn’t up for a Covid fight. I’d argue that he was never up for it. When he took office, there was an opportunity to strategize against future surges and variants, scale up the production of masks and at-home rapid tests, fund research into long Covid, provide financial support for immunocompromised patients and a path to getting them back to normal life, campaign on indoor air quality improvements, and vaccinate the planet. Yes, the administration would have had to battle like hell against the Republican lawmakers and skittish Democrats who would oppose this comprehensive and common-sense plan. But it would have been a fight worth having, fought from a position of strength. It would have been more inspiring to watch them fail valiantly doing the right thing than watch them blanch in the face of a reckless judge, sitting behind closed doors anxiously hoping that the worst is over.
—Jason Linkins, deputy editor
