The Biden Administration is preparing for a possible new surge in COVID-19 cases and has already started the political blame game in case the response falls short.
The White House has called out Republicans in Congress for not authorizing new funds to make a fourth round of booster shots free and pay for therapeutic and other ways to reduce the impact of another surge in cases. The consequences of congressional inaction are severe, and they are immediate.
Republicans in Congress have refused to fund additional booster shots and treatments, saying Congress has allocated enough money to cover those expenses.
The politics around the Pandemic have put the Biden White House in a tough spot according to a Democratic strategist. It is up to the Biden Administration to be ready to help if there is another spike in infections. The White House wants to get funding from Congress. There is a chance for another wave, and we need to be prepared. Those things don't just happen.
Biden's performance on COVID is one of the few bright spots in the public's sagging perception of his presidency. They want to keep it that way. According to polling conducted in March by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 53% of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the Pandemic.
How voters view Biden's handling of future case surge could affect whether Democrats can beat predictions and keep control of the House. When kids go back to school in the fall, political operatives are watching to see if the country is on the verge of a public health crisis.
The National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan was published by the White House in March.
When cases have dropped, health officials should be able to increase vaccinations and buy masks for the next surge. When Omicron cases lead to record-setting deaths and hospitalizations in January, the Biden Administration was blamed for not doing enough in the fall to prepare for a new surge and being late to make enough free tests and high-quality masks available to the public. If there are similar failures before a new surge, the Administration wants the public to blame Congress.
There is reason to believe that the U.S. could see another spike soon. A more easily spread subvariant of Omicron, BA.2 is taking hold in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. There are signs of a new version of the virus emerging in Northeastern states, but Epidemiologists believe the Omicron infections in the winter may help blunt a new spike.
Americans want to move on from the Pandemic. The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has dropped by over a thousand since January. There are restaurants, offices and schools open. More than 800 Americans are dying from coronaviruses every day. Democrats have moved away from masks, and they aren't likely to return. One of the first Democratic governors to say that Michigan wasn't going back to the days of sweeping mask mandates was Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer. That posture has been adopted by many other Democratic leaders, including Biden, and is unlikely to change even in the face of another surge in cases. The Biden White House has the tools to deal with this, says the advisor.
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