During the 2020 campaign, pollsters found that voters trusted Biden more to manage the COVID-19 outbreak than former President Donald Trump. And while that trust lingered after Biden moved into the White House, it is slowly eroding, according to polls conducted by the likes of Quinnipiac University and Fox News.

Quinnipiac University found that Biden’s COVID-19 job approval had dipped this month to 50%, down from a 66% high in May. At that time, his COVID-19 job disapproval was 31%. It is now 47%. Fox News found that Biden’s COVID-19 job approval this month is slightly higher, at 55%, while his disapproval is 44%. That is a drop from 64% approval in June, when his disapproval was 34%.

But during a critical week for Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal and $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate spending proposal, the White House is still pushing a COVID-centric message.

“I thought this was infrastructure week,” Republican strategist Brian Johnson quipped to the Washington Examiner.

For Johnson, a principal at lobbying and advisory firm the Vogel Group, the White House was sticking with its COVID-19 message to avoid unwanted attention for the unpopular components of the $3.5 trillion Democrats-only reconciliation package, including new cigarette, cigar, and vape taxes.

“If you look at the president’s agenda, he ran on exponentially more things than the public health crisis we are facing,” he told the Washington Examiner. “They don’t want to talk about those other things because it’s hard to say you’re not going to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year and your ‘Build Back Better Plan’ will raise taxes on anyone who chooses to smoke.”

But the White House has also rolled out divisive COVID-19 policies, such as Biden’s proposed vaccine or testing mandate for private businesses with 1`00 or more employees. In fact, one of Biden’s few public appearances this week is a Chicago trip to promote the requirement.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, housed within the Labor Department, is drafting the rule, which is expected to affect more than 80 million workers, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

“What the president’s going to continue to do is lift up private sector companies and businesses that have already put in place mandates, even as the rulemaking process is ongoing,” she said.

While the same Quinnipiac poll this month found that 53% of respondents approved of the White House’s private business vaccine mandate plan, 51% disapproved of Biden’s vaccine requirements more generally and 48% told pollsters his mandates go “too far.”

Republicans, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, are attempting to capitalize on the data. Scalise, for instance, amplifies Biden’s weakness through his weekly “Pandemic Report” newsletter as part of his role on the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

The White House’s COVID-19 message coincides with behind-the-scenes scrambling to ensure that liberal House Democrats support the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal when the chamber votes on it Thursday. The bill passed the Senate last month, but liberal Democrats have delayed the House’s consideration of it as they try to pressure their centrist colleagues to back the $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate spending proposal they hope to clear Congress with reconciliation budget procedures.

The White House is simultaneously hurtling toward a federal government shutdown, with funding set to expire on Oct. 1. There is also the problem posed by projections that the Treasury Department will soon run out of money to pay the country’s debts unless its borrowing limit is increased.

Psaki conceded Monday that “nothing is guaranteed” regarding Thursday’s infrastructure vote but was adamant Biden would “do everything he can” to advance his agenda. Her tone was different from last week, when she repeated that the White House was determined to “win the vote.”

“This is what the American people want. Roads, rails, bridges, they are not Republican or Democratic,” she said. “So, our zip code here is sometimes a little out of wack with what the public wants.”

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Biden’s job approval has sunk since the summer, when the delta variant propelled a surge in COVID-19 cases, especially among unvaccinated people in the South. Broadly speaking, public health does remain a top voter concern for independents, as does the economy.