T
HE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS PREPARING
for a possible new surge in COVID-19 cases and
has already started the political blame game in
case the response falls short.
The White House has called out Republicans in
Congress for not authorizing new funds to make a fourth
round of booster shots free and pay for therapeutics and
other ways to reduce the impact of another surge in cases.
“Our primary concern right now is that we’re about to
run out of funding,” White House press secretary Jen
Psaki said on March 21, warning Americans that they
may have to pay for their next booster shots if more
funding isn’t passed. Two days later, White House corona-
virus response coordinator Jef Zients echoed: “The
consequences of congressional inaction are severe, and
they are immediate.”
Republicans in Congress have
refused President Joe Biden’s
request for $15.6 billion more
funding to make additional
booster shots free and fund
treatments, saying Congress has
allocated enough to cover those
expenses, and it’s incumbent
on states and agencies to spend
what’s already been passed.
Kristen Hawn, a Democratic
strategist consulting in
competitive House races, says
that the politics around the
pandemic have put the Biden
White House in a tough spot.
Polling shows that Americans
are tired of the pandemic,
but it’s still up to the Biden
Administration to be ready to
provide help if there’s another
spike in infections. “It’s a
predicament,” Hawn says. To get funding from Congress,
White House oicials feel the need to build public
pressure. “If another variant comes along, people are
going to expect shots in arms; they’re going to expect
testing. Those things don’t just happen,” Hawn says.
THE WHITE HOUSE KNOWS that Biden’s performance on
COVID-19 is one of the few bright spots in the public’s
sagging perception of his presidency. And they want to
keep it that way: 53% of Americans approve of Biden’s
handling of the pandemic, according to polling conducted
in mid-March by the Associated Press/NORC Center for
Public Afairs Research—well above the 43% who approved
of Biden’s job performance overall. “Biden’s job rating on
COVID is his strongest job rating,” says John Anzalone, a
Democratic pollster who has worked closely with Biden.
“It’s well above his overall job rating, and it shows people
have a lot of conidence in him on that issue.”
How voters see Biden’s handling of future case surges
could have an impact on whether Democrats are able
to beat predictions and keep control of the House in
November’s midterm races. Political operatives are
watching closely to see where the country is on the
pandemic when the next school year begins. “Where we
are when kids go back to school is probably how things are
going to be judged politically,” says an adviser close to the
Biden White House.
The White House published a document in early March
called the “National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.” It in-
cludes eforts to boost U.S. vaccine production to 1 billion
doses per year, fund the development of a single COVID-
vaccine shot, distribute vaccines for children under 5 after
the FDA approval, and increase U.S. production of test kits.
“If we fail on this, we leave ourselves vulnerable if another
wave of the virus hits,” Biden said on March 30. “Congress
needs to act now, please.”
Periods after cases have
dropped are when health
oicials should be able to
increase vaccinations and buy
up therapeutics and masks for
the next surge. When Omicron
cases led to record-setting deaths
and hospitalizations in January,
the Biden Administration was
blamed for not doing enough
to prepare, and for being late in
making a suicient quantity of
free tests and high-quality masks
available. If there are similar
failures before a new surge, the
Administration is making a case
for the public to blame Congress.
There’s reason to believe
the U.S. could soon see another
spike. Coronavirus cases in
Britain, the Netherlands, and
Germany are rising as a more
easily spread subvariant of Omicron, BA.2, takes hold.
Epidemiologists in the U.S. have seen signs of the new
version of the virus in Northeastern states.
The number of new reported COVID-19 cases in
the U.S. has dropped by 97% from its daily average
peak of 800,000 in mid-January. Restaurants, oices,
and schools are open, and mask mandates have lifted
across the country. More than 800 Americans are
still dying from coronavirus infections every day. But
Democrats have politically moved away from lockdowns
and widespread mask mandates, and they likely aren’t
going back. Last June, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer
was one of the irst Democratic governors to say that
her state wasn’t going back to lockdowns or sweeping
mask mandates. That posture has since been adopted by
many other Democratic leaders, including Biden, and is
unlikely to change. The adviser close to the Biden White
House says: “Democrats will be incredibly resistant to go
back to anything other than, ‘We have the tools to deal
with this.’” □THE BRIEF OPENER
‘Our primary
concern right
now is that
we’re about to
run out of
funding.’
—JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARYThe Brief is reported by Eloise Barry, Madeleine Carlisle, Mariah Espada, Tara Law, Sanya Mansoor, Billy Perrigo, Nik Popli, Simmone Shah, and Olivia B. WaxmanPREVIOUS PAGE: THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; THESE PAGES: CHRIS SZAGOLA—AP