Inflation is soaring, businesses are struggling to hire, and President Joe Biden has seen his poll numbers plummet. The White House sees a common culprit.
Biden's team believes that the nation's problems are caused by the pandemic. The White House believes that controlling COVID-19 is the key to revitalizing the country.
The White House has had to contend with the premature coronaviruses challenge, with last summer's claims of victory swamped by the more transmissible delta variant, stubborn millions of Americans unvaccinated and the economic effects of the epidemic.
The omicron variant of the virus emerged overseas. It is worrying public health officials, leading to new travel bans and panic in the markets.
Even if the economy does come back, there are still signs that COVID-19 will leave its scars.
In the administration's view, an intransigent minority that is resisting vaccination is ruining the recovery for the rest of the country, forcing masks on the vaccine and contributing to residual anxiousness.
The White House press secretary said this past week that people are sick and tired of fighting a Pandemic and that's why they aren't getting the message that the economy is improving. We are as well.
She said that the state of affairs affects everything from how people feel about sending their kids out to the price of gas.
The administration believes that vaccination mandates are critical to preventing illness and death and to preserving the economic recovery.
The White House has the tools to accelerate the path out of the coronaviruses. While he ruled out large-scale lockdowns like the United States experienced in 2020 and like those popping up again across Europe, he renewed the administration's appeals for more Americans to get their shots.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that the new variant in southern Africa could be worse than the waves from the delta.
The White House and the president's allies have been frustrated for weeks over the slow government action to approve booster shots for all adults. They fear that the regulatory process contributed to misinformation and confusion and that the nation isn't protected for the holiday season.
Unvaccinated Americans are urged by Biden to be responsible and get the shot and for those eligible for a booster to get that as well. Everyone should be doing that. We always talk about freedom, but I think it's a patriotic responsibility to do that.
Democrats say a change may be within reach despite the hand-wringing over Biden's sagging standing with Americans.
Jesse Ferguson, a party strategist, said that people have gone from feeling like they are mourning again in America to feeling like they are.
The economy, our way of life, and people feeling less divided are all benefits of getting past the Pandemic.
Biden's critics don't think it's a good idea to blame the nation's problems on COVID-19 or to think that containing the virus will solve them.
Senate Republican leaderMitch McConnell of Kentucky blames the high prices on Biden's big Pandemic relief package. Inflation. The runaway prices and unpredictability that Democrats have created.
Even if the president's handling of the virus has been seen as a strength, his approval ratings have been hurt by the effects of the virus.
A majority of Americans said they approved of Biden's job on the Pandemic. His approval rating was higher than his handling of the economy, but it was still lower than his approval rating overall.
As recently as July, Biden was approved of by 66% of the people he worked with.
In February, half of Americans said the nation was heading in the right direction, but in last month's poll only one-third said the same.
Only one-third of people think the economy is good, compared to half in September.
The White House is using a version of the old slogan from the Bill Clinton years, "It's the economy, stupid", to fix the blame on the swine flu.
When asked what the administration was doing to contain higher prices, she replied that they knew what the root causes were. There are global supply chain issues.
The best thing the government can do is to control the Pandemic. That is what the president wants to focus on.
The message is the same throughout the administration.
Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, said recently that the best way to end the Pandemic is to get the vaccine.
The ultimate answer to spiking gasoline prices was to get people vaccinations, said Energy Secretary Granholm.
Economists mostly agree with the sentiment, but caution that the solution is not easy.
James Stock, an economist at Harvard, said that the best way to reduce the spread of the virus is to increase vaccinations. It is the number one economic policy.
Stock said that it was realistic to think that COVID-19 would not go away.
The economists warn that there will be harmful effects even if the virus fades.
According to an analysis done by Goldman Sachs, half of the 5 million people who left the labor force since the Pandemic have retired, making it harder for businesses to regain lost jobs. A study done by Nicholas Bloom and others indicates that companies expect more people to keep working from home and shopping online, a problem for local retailers that depend on office workers to buy lunch and people to return to stores.
25% of Americans' work days are now at home, a figure that has risen since the beginning of the Pandemic. A survey done by his colleagues and him shows that more than three-quarters of workers would prefer to work from home at least one day a week. It could make it harder for employers to evaluate their workers.
Pandemic issues at home can't be solved because the administration is dealing with a global economy.
One sign that vaccination worldwide could be as critical as the administration's domestic efforts is the fact that the shortage of semiconductors was worsened by the coronaviruses outbreak in Asia. Biden wants to strengthen the supply chain so that it doesn't get damaged from the government shutdowns.
Biden said in a recent speech that if a factory in Malaysia shuts down due to a COVID outbreak, it would slow down auto manufacturing in Detroit. Why? They don't have the computer chips they need.
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Josh Boak and Hannah Fingerhut are writers for the Associated Press.
