The Memo: Prolonged COVID-19 war scrambles political landscape

Americans are having to reconcile themselves to a long war against the coronavirus pandemic, amid thwarted hopes that this summer would see a return to normal life.

Public frustration — stoked by shifting guidance over mask-wearing, political squabbling and the sheer stress of dealing with a pandemic that has transformed daily existence since March 2020 — is bringing new volatility to the political atmosphere.

President Biden had earned high marks for his handling of the pandemic in the early months of his tenure. 

But those figures have begun to erode. In an Economist/YouGov poll released Wednesday, Biden’s performance on COVID-19 was approved by a modest plurality of adults, 47 percent to 42 percent. Among independent voters, the results were almost reversed, with 47 breaking against Biden and 41 percent backing him.

Biden’s principal political foes in the COVID-19 debate have been Republican governors, most prominently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Both men have moved to prohibit masking and vaccination mandates in their state. 

But such moves carry their own risks. The two states have seen soaring infection rates. Florida has the highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the nation. In Texas, Abbott was revealed on Tuesday to have tested positive for COVID-19, though he is fully vaccinated and is said to be showing no symptoms.

DeSantis had not only prohibited Florida schools from imposing mask mandates but had initially threatened that the salaries of school board members and superintendents could be withheld if they defied him. He later softened that position.

Still, Biden counter-punched on Wednesday. The president noted during a White House address that he had instructed the secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, to look into the possibility of taking legal action against governors who, in Biden’s view, are blocking efforts “to protect our children.”

The main thrust of Biden’s speech was to announce the coming availability of third “booster” shots, to be made available to all Americans 8 months from the date of their second injection.

That push comes as daily new cases of COVID-19 rise to around 140,000, a number unseen since the virus peaked between November 2020 and the end of January.

Biden, already under pressure because of the debacle in Afghanistan, sought to thread the needle between emphasizing the dangers from the delta variant of COVID-19 and insisting that the battle would eventually be won.

“The threat…remains real. But we have the tools,” he said. “This is no time to let our guard down. We just need to finish the job.”

Public health officials are watching with dismay as the numbers keep spiraling — and some are particularly critical of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which they fault for an uneven communications strategy.

Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner and a visiting professor at George Washington University, told this column that right now is “probably the most dangerous time in the pandemic for our children” as schools return, under-12s remain ineligible for vaccination and masking policies vary.

The Biden administration’s “single biggest mistake was back in May when the CDC announced that vaccinated people don’t need to be wearing masks. That was widely understood as the end of the mask mandate, and people misunderstood and thought, ‘This is the end of the pandemic.’ ” Wen added. “It is very difficult to unring that bell and to convince people to put mask mandates back in place.”

Politically speaking, some Republicans believe that sheer public weariness over the pandemic will have a negative effect on Biden’s standing.

“In terms of the delay in Americans returning to their normal lives, every day that goes by is not helpful to anyone in elected office, let alone Biden. If we are continuing masks through January, there’s a third booster shot, there is a patchwork of vaccine requirements and confusion as to how our schoolchildren are treated — all those things really pile up into frustration for Americans,” said one Republican strategist.

But that source, who requested anonymity, also admitted that the kind of permissive strategy adopted by DeSantis and Abbott was “obviously risky.”

“We’re in a fog of war as to how this is all going to play out,” the strategist added.

Democrats are enveloped in that same fog. Given how often predictions about the course of COVID-19 have been wrong, theories about its political implications come with many caveats.

Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh bemoaned the extent to which almost everything about the pandemic has become politicized. Regarding Biden, he noted, “There is about 40 percent of the public that is not going to approve no matter what he does.”

Longabaugh acknowledged that the prolongation of the battle against COVID-19 was “not helpful” for the president but he also defended Biden’s “professional and organized” approach.

“Biden has approached this as a competent president would, and he has brought some sanity to the debate,” he said. “It’s just unfortunate that presidents can’t control mutating viruses. I’m sure he wishes he could.”

For now, Americans are trying to navigate between the poles of battening down the hatches or taking their chances in some semblance of regular life.

The politics of the issue, like the virus itself, remain in flux.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.