Joe Biden should take it as a blessing that he’s able to skate by for at least a month unnoticed while this pandemic plays out. Instead, he’s throwing himself in front of the cameras, begging to get flogged.
His latest stunt, offering to call President Trump directly and offer advice, is a dud. It was certainly an attempt to bait Trump into looking petty by slighting the former vice president, though that’s not what happened. Trump was asked Wednesday whether he would speak to Biden on the phone, and he said, “I’d love to speak to him, sure. I always found him to be a nice guy.”
But let’s pretend that it was actually a genuine invitation. What, exactly, does Biden believe he has to offer? It’s all on his website already, so let’s have a look at that.
As part of Biden’s plan for the freak coronavirus, which even scientists don’t completely understand, he said the administration should “immediately put scientists and public health leaders front and center in communication with the American people.” He must not be watching the daily two-hour White House press briefings, because that’s the only reason Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx are now household names.
He also believes “that every person who needs a test can get one — and that testing for those who need it is free.” That is also the current administration’s position. This isn’t a matter of wanting more tests — it’s a matter of making them fast enough. That hasn’t happened, and Biden offers no solution as to how it could.
More helpful advice from Biden: “Provide a daily public White House report on how many tests have been done.” That also happens right now.
Any help and support that the government can get should be welcomed, but let’s not act like Biden has some searing insight to offer here. When he was vice president, the Obama administration went through not just one but two pandemics, and it burned through the federal stockpiles of personal protective equipment for healthcare providers. Then the administration failed to replenish those stocks.
Besides, the new coronavirus isn’t the same as anything the Obama administration went through. Ebola didn’t spread through the air. The H1N1 swine flu was about half as contagious as the new virus, and it didn’t have the stealth element like this new thing, where people might be carrying the pathogen around for weeks and never show symptoms.
The Trump administration deserves its share of the blame for our government’s depressing lack of preparation for an outbreak, yes, but Biden might want to lay a little lower if he thinks he can claim credit as some expert manager of pandemics.
He’s not. We’re in this position in part because of the failures of the last administration, in which he worked. Does he really want to remind us of that by insisting that we pay attention to him now?
