White House demands for more COVID-19 funding, second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s positive diagnosis, and the spread of the BA.2 omicron variant have muddied President Joe Biden’s attempts to move past the pandemic.
Overshadowed by the Ukraine war and de-prioritized as restrictions have relaxed to reflect falling case numbers, the White House had started to pivot toward other agenda items without declaring the public health emergency over. But the setbacks have eroded the perception of progress amid calls for preparations to begin for the next outbreak.
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The White House is snared in a messaging trap as Biden and his aides implore Congress to approve more COVID-19 spending amid the BA.2 variant threat “without seeming to suggest that new lockdowns are around the corner” before November’s midterm elections, according to former Republican operative John Pitney.
“Most Americans are sick of restrictions and want the pandemic to be over,” the Claremont McKenna College politics professor, who has written about the politicization of autism, told the Washington Examiner. “Sounding the alarm bell might trigger resentment instead of watchfulness.”
The White House has, to some extent, minimized the risks posed by the BA.2 COVID-19 variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, has repeated that he expects an “uptick” in cases considering the strain is between 50% and 60% more transmissible than the original omicron sequence. But he said last weekend that he did not predict the United States would “see a surge,” particularly among the vaccinated and boosted.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has similarly sought to reassure the public that the administration is monitoring BA.2’s spread at home and abroad in China and Europe. The mRNA shots are also an advantage the U.S. has over countries, such as China, currently experiencing outbreaks, she contended.
Dr. Anand Parekh, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s own chief medical adviser, agreed with Fauci’s BA.2 variant assessment. But although Fauci did not foresee a return to “very” restrictive “kinds of restrictions,” he cautioned about the need for “flexibility.” Parekh echoed Fauci’s counsel.
“That means that CDC may once again in the future recommend indoor masking in certain places based on COVID community levels,” he said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Parekh urged Biden to “redouble” his COVID-19 vaccination and booster efforts, specifically among vulnerable populations.
“Further, they should deploy stockpiled effective therapeutics as widely as possible,” he said. “From a testing perspective, we should be in much better shape than we were pre-omicron in late 2021. However, the public needs to be reeducated about the importance of testing.”
For former CDC spokesman Glen Nowak, the White House could improve how it communicates its COVID-19 funding rationale — by emphasizing the difference the expenditure would make, for example. He argued more could be done in terms of second-generation vaccine development and pandemic preparedness as well.
“There hasn’t been clear and consistent messaging from the federal government about what their COVID-19 vaccine investment strategies look like,” the University of Georgia Center for Health and Risk Communication director said, adding that the White House has relied heavily on outside data collection. “Many of the people who would be doing that currently are on the front lines having to treat patients and deal with the current pandemic,” he continued of learning lessons from the past two-plus years.
Psaki defended the White House’s forward planning Monday, saying the “primary concern” at the moment is the additional COVID-19 money. House Democrats pressured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pull almost $16 billion for the pandemic from the $1.5 trillion government funding bill because several lawmakers did not agree with its state resource reallocation. On top of variant research, it would have paid for the free vaccine, testing, and treatment programs.
Psaki also dismissed speculation that the lack of COVID-19 task force briefings amid the leadership change between coordinator Jeff Zients, a former business executive, and Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, meant the group would be disbanded soon.
The White House’s uneven approach to COVID-19 has been underscored in recent weeks as the administration retains the federal transportation mask mandate and the Title 42 deportation rule, while other restrictions have been rolled back.
At the same time, the White House did not appear to panic when Emhoff popped Biden’s protective bubble by contracting COVID-19. Biden had spoken, too, with Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who later tested positive. Biden’s doctors did not tinker with his weekly testing schedule because Emhoff and Martin were not close contacts, according to Psaki.
Psaki sidestepped a reporter question last week asking whether the White House would deem Biden getting COVID-19 as a “failure” or whether it was “a new fact of life.”
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“Just because COVID isn’t disrupting some of our lives in certain communities as much as it was a few weeks ago, it doesn’t mean it’s gone,” she said. “It’s not gone.”
