Biden is frustrated? I’m frustrated. He’s still off on COVID.
When it comes to fighting COVID-19, our best option shouldn’t be better late than never.
But in his speech Thursday – during which he laid out stronger vaccine mandates for federal workers and put pressure on teachers to follow suit – President Joe Biden finally provided some of the force that the nation’s fight against COVID-19 has been missing.
Biden stated that “many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated.”
True. I am one of those frustrated Americans.
He also chided local leaders for playing “pandemic politics.” And while I agree with his criticism, the full weight of my frustration doesn’t just lie with local politicians. A good part of it falls squarely on Biden.
The president’s plan has been called bold. Some parts of it are. But more than anything, I would call it long overdue.
As America’s COVID-19 rate quickly surpasses 150,000 cases daily, Biden’s late show of strength is nearly as bad as President Donald Trump’s failure to do what so many other leaders did once the world knew the depths of the initial outbreak – take the virus seriously, push as hard on a mask mandate as his powers would allow and tell the public to stay home.
The president had the opportunity to do something just as forceful through his Department of Labor emergency order – push employers with 100 or more workers to mandate the vaccine, period, instead of allowing regular testing to be an option.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci broke with Biden when it came to giving employers what Fauci called an “off lane” on mandating the vaccine. Fauci, on CNN, stated that the president was being moderate in order to give those who didn’t want to take the vaccine the opportunity to exercise that right. If they test positive, they could remain home instead of potentially infecting co-workers.
But why chance it? Long before people are symptomatic, they can carry the virus. And a positive test may force them to avoid work, but they could still go to other places, potentially spreading the disease.
Several COVID-19 speeches into his presidency and Biden is still, disappointingly, missing the mark.
Mandate delay put lives at risk
As an Afrian American journalist, I have been trying hard to reach members of my community and spread the message of vaccine importance. I moderated a live roundtable discussion with Black doctors. One described the surge in hospitalizations in her Detroit area as one that rivals the initial outbreak. Another doctor came out strongly on vaccine mandates.
As in-person education picks up, younger students are getting hit hard by delta. An earlier and more aggressive push for vaccinations among school teachers and a strong mandate for federal ones (something he just did) could have gone a long way toward saving kids now. Biden also avoided, until late, making a firm push for mandates among hospital staff – another costly error.
In March, I was a patient at a hospital in Washington, D.C. During my extended stay, most medical professionals I came in contact with had been vaccinated, but at least one nurse who was providing my treatment hadn’t. She had also been treating COVID-19 patients, and admitted that she hadn’t been tested for a while.
As a patient, I was required to take a COVID-19 test upon admission to the hospital. Every time I was moved to a different ward, I was tested again.
The fact that frequent testing and vaccination hadn’t been required for nurses made patients like me and surrounding communities unnecessarily vulnerable.
Stronger virus, fewer resources
Around May, the first cases of the delta variant were already detected in the United States, and evidence that it was a much more dangerous version of the virus was clear. It wasn’t until July that Biden finally instituted more “incentives for vaccination” for federal employees.
We’re now facing a much stronger virus. And Hurricane Ida has left us with fewer resources to fight it.
Why have we, as a nation, consistently waited until after this coronavirus crisis hits incredibly damaging levels to take the most aggressive (and obvious) measures?
Surely Biden was in a position to learn from the stumbles of his predecessor. Trump was slow to act for different reasons. He dismissed the science and then failed to push on masks. Even after he was hospitalized for COVID-19, his behavior didn’t significantly change. Those choices cost lives.
We’ve been here before
I have a brother who lives in Colorado, and he is among the vaccine resistant. The only thing that would change his mind, he said, is if it were against the law for him not to get the vaccine.
The nation has faced vaccine resisters before, and efforts to save the country were more aggressive and the mobilization all encompassing. In the 1970s, the nation’s Childhood Immunization Initiative, a federal program, tracked individual vaccination records and strongly facilitated access for children who hadn’t taken part. Eventually all 50 states got on board, requiring the vaccines that are now routine for public school enrollment.
In this pandemic, California has been among the most progressive states, mandating the vaccine for hospital workers. On Thursday, Los Angeles’ school system added the COVID-19 vaccine to its requirements for children 12 and older.
But whether or not people across the country can live, function and get through this pandemic safely shouldn’t depend on a few state leaders doing the right thing. If you live in a state where officials are pro-active, you’re in luck. If you don’t, you’re on your own?
If the president’s efforts work, it will still take more than a month to see the benefits. Meanwhile, so many questions are spinning around in my head: What about the lambda variant? Without more aggressive steps on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, will we ever reach herd immunity?
Yes, Mr. President, we’re frustrated. Time will tell if you’ve done enough to quell that.