Biden’s dilemma: To lock down or not?
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden faces a decision unlike any other incoming president: whether to back a short-term national lockdown to finally arrest a raging pandemic.
For now, it’s a question the president-elect would prefer to avoid. In the week since he defeated President Donald Trump, Mr. Biden has devoted most of his public remarks to encouraging all Americans to wear a mask and to view the coronavirus as a threat that has no regard for political ideology.
But the debate has been livelier among members of the coronavirus advisory board Mr. Biden announced this week. One member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, suggested a fourto six-week lockdown with financial aid for Americans whose livelihoods would be affected. later walked back his remarks and was rebutted by two other members of the panel who said a widespread lockdown shouldn’t be under consideration.
That’s a sign of the tough dynamic Mr. Biden will face when he is inaugurated on Jan. 20. He campaigned as a more responsible steward of America’s public health than Mr. Trump and has been blunt about the challenges
that lie ahead for the country, warning of a “dark winter” as COVID-19 cases spike.
But talk of lockdowns are especially sensitive. For one, they’re nearly impossible for a president to enact on his own, requiring bipartisan support from state and local officials. But more broadly, they’re a political flashpoint that could undermine Mr. Biden’s efforts to unify a deeply divided country.
“It would create a backlash,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, adding that such a move could make the situation worse if people don’t comply with restrictions. “Lockdowns can have consequences that diminish the value of such an approach.”
During his first public appearance since losing the election, Mr. Trump noted Friday that he wouldn’t support a lockdown. The president, who has yet to publicly acknowledge Mr. Biden’s victory, would likely reinforce that message to his loyal supporters once he’s left office.
Still, the pandemic’s toll continues to escalate. The coronavirus is blamed for 10.6 million confirmed infections and almost a quarter-million deaths in the U.S., with the closely watched University of Washington model projecting nearly 439,000 dead by March 1. Deaths have climbed to about 1,000 per day on average.
New cases per day are soaring, shattering records. The latest came Friday, when more than 184,000 people tested positive, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Several states are beginning to bring back some of the restrictions first imposed during the spring. But leaders in much of the country are proceeding with caution, aware Americans are already fatigued by virus-related disruptions.
Indeed, after Dr. Osterholm made his comments, a number of Mr. Biden’s task force members went out to publicly disavow lockdown possibilities. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general who’s serving as one of the cochairs on Mr. Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, said the group is looking at a “series of restrictions that we dial up or down” based on the severity of the virus in a given region.