President Joe Biden was elected to “shut down the virus,” in his own words. But he has had to be dragged toward normalcy on every COVID-related decision of his presidency, even two years after the start of the pandemic.
The CEOs of major airline companies have written a letter to Biden asking him to lift the mask mandate for aircraft and pre-departure testing requirements. “It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks,” the executives noted, correctly. They also noted that the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Canada all lifted their pre-departure testing requirements.
The letter cites data from Biden’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making you wonder what exactly Biden is looking at as he drags the rest of the country into the third year of COVID-19 restrictions. Biden extended the mask mandate for airplanes and public transport earlier this month, the fourth time he had done so in his first year in office.
All the while, Biden is asking Congress to spend billions more on coronavirus “relief.” This comes as the Associated Press reports that funds from the American Rescue Plan to address COVID were used on new hotels, baseball stadium renovations, and tourist marketing campaigns.
Biden has clung to COVID at every turn until other forces dragged him away from restrictions and mandates. His planned vaccine mandate for private businesses was withdrawn only after it was blocked by the Supreme Court. The court also blocked Biden’s eviction moratorium, a policy he justified because of the pandemic. Biden was last when it came to lifting school restrictions too, dragged along by voters in Virginia’s statewide elections last November and Democratic governors who recognize the writing on the wall.
On yet another COVID issue, Biden is the last holdout. The man elected to move the country past COVID has been the biggest obstacle to doing exactly that. Perhaps another election wipeout in November might finally help Biden move on.
