Is Joe Biden declaring ‘independence from the virus’ too quickly?

Written by Sheryl Gay Stolberg
President Joe Biden’s plan to have a good time “independence from the virus” on the Fourth of July is working into an disagreeable actuality: Less than half the nation is absolutely vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus, and the extremely contagious delta variant is threatening new outbreaks.
The president and first girl Jill Biden have invited 1,000 army personnel and important employees to an Independence Day bash on the South Lawn of the White House. Biden and his advisers, keen to assert credit score for the virus’s retreat within the United States, are speaking a couple of “summer of joy and freedom.”
The president will go to Traverse City, Michigan, on Saturday as a part of what the White House calls the “America’s Back Together” celebration. Jill Biden may also take to the highway, as will Vice President Kamala Harris, her husband, Doug Emhoff, and numerous Cabinet officers who will attend festivals, parades and cookouts across the nation.
But public well being consultants worry that scenes of cross-country celebrations — together with a White House celebration with a liberation theme — will ship the flawed message when vast swaths of the inhabitants stay susceptible and true independence from the worst public well being disaster in a century could also be a good distance off.
“We’re still in the middle of this marathon,” mentioned Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious illness knowledgeable at Vanderbilt University. Despite appreciable progress in reducing the variety of coronavirus circumstances and deaths within the United States over the previous few months, he mentioned, it stays too early to “unfurl the ‘mission accomplished’ banner.”
Suggesting that the nation is shifting previous the pandemic is a fragile activity for Biden and his fellow Democrats, who should steadiness warning with absolutely reopening the economic system and getting nationwide morale again on observe.
While Friday’s jobs report was promising, exhibiting employers added 850,000 employees in June, the financial restoration is much from full. Republicans are blaming enhanced pandemic-related unemployment advantages for protecting folks from returning to work and holding again the restoration. Those advantages expire in September regardless, and Biden is going through strain to point out extra development earlier than then.
In a bid to steer Americans that Biden is restoring the pre-pandemic order, the Democratic National Committee this week launched an upbeat advert titled “America’s Coming Back” and despatched a bus, the “America’s Back” cellular, touring the nation to offer out free ice cream. It bears Biden’s picture and the phrases “Shots in Arms, Checks in Banks, Jobs Coming Back, and Scoops in Hands!”
But the pleased messaging is hanging a bitter observe with some. In interviews, a number of relations of COVID-19 victims mentioned it was troublesome to listen to Biden counsel that the nation was returning to regular whereas they have been nonetheless grieving.
“There’s no return to normalcy for us,” mentioned Sabila Khan, 42, of Jersey City, New Jersey, who created a Facebook help group after her father died of COVID-19. “It’s very nerve-racking when the government is encouraging you to just move beyond it. We lost our loved ones. We are never moving past this.”
White House officers mentioned Biden was hardly declaring victory or “mission accomplished,” however merely needed to take inventory of the positive factors the United States had made in opposition to the virus since he took workplace. To fight the unfold of the delta variant, the administration is sending “COVID-19 surge response teams” to communities in danger, Jeffrey Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, informed reporters Thursday.
“The Fourth of July is a moment for us to step back and celebrate our progress,” Zients mentioned. “There’s a lot more work to do.”
The United States has made important progress in opposition to the pandemic since Biden took workplace Jan. 20, warning of a “dark winter” forward. Daily stories of latest circumstances are holding regular at about 12,000, the bottom since testing grew to become broadly accessible, in accordance with a New York Times database — down from about 200,000 on Inauguration Day.
For the primary time since March 2020, the nation is averaging fewer than 300 newly reported deaths a day, a decline of about 20% over the previous two weeks. Hospitalizations are additionally dropping.
But the advances have been uneven, with a big portion of U.S. circumstances rising in a handful of sizzling spots, significantly the place vaccination charges are low. Las Vegas, rural Utah, rural Arkansas, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the Missouri Ozarks are among the many locations with upticks. And as a result of the nationwide pattern traces are flat, consultants have no idea exactly which manner they’ll go.
“If you looked a couple of weeks ago, most of those projections were trending downwards; it looked like we were sailing into summer,” mentioned Lauren Ancel Meyers, a public well being researcher on the University of Texas at Austin. “Those projections now have flatlined. We’re not necessarily seeing an indication yet that things are going to surge in parts of the country, but we aren’t sure what’s going to happen.”
Plenty of governors are planning to carry their public well being emergency orders within the coming weeks; Maryland and Virginia lifted their orders Thursday, bringing an finish to masks mandates and different restrictions.
But the nationwide emergency declared by former President Donald Trump stays in impact by way of late July, and the White House has informed governors that Biden plans to increase it, officers mentioned.
The vaccination marketing campaign, in the meantime, is plodding alongside, with about 1 million photographs administered every day. Biden had hoped to have 70% of adults not less than partly vaccinated by July 4, however the White House conceded final month that it could not meet that aim.
The more true measure of safety, consultants say, is whether or not persons are absolutely vaccinated; solely 46% of Americans fall into that class. With kids underneath 12 nonetheless ineligible for the vaccine, it is going to be a while earlier than a overwhelming majority of the United States is absolutely vaccinated. Public well being officers are significantly anxious about outbreaks as soon as faculty resumes within the fall.
In an period when vaccination has turn out to be a topic of fierce political debate, White House officers should not requiring friends on the July 4 celebration to be vaccinated. But they are going to be requested to current proof of a unfavorable COVID-19 check taken inside three days of the occasion, and the White House has suggested those that are unvaccinated that they “should wear a mask,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, mentioned this week.
Meyers, of the University of Texas, mentioned the necessities have been “very sensible” and a present of accountable habits. “Testing, face masks, vaccinations: Those are our tickets to freedom from this threat,” she mentioned.
But the absence of a vaccination requirement for White House celebration friends can be proof of the challenges forward, mentioned Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There is so much toxic politics around COVID that it’s constraining sensible action,” he mentioned. “Obviously it makes sense to require proof of vaccination in various settings, but that has become a political lightning rod.”
Frieden and different consultants mentioned they feared that if the delta variant continues to flow into, it’ll mutate in a manner that leaves even the vaccinated susceptible. That already appears to be taking place elsewhere on this planet; even international locations like South Korea and Israel, the place the virus appeared to be in verify, have new clusters of illness.
“Compared to many other countries, we are in a much more secure situation,” mentioned Jennifer Nuzzo, a public well being researcher at Johns Hopkins University. But, she added, “I really do worry that as America enjoys its freedoms, we forget about the rest of the world, and that could come back to bite us.”
When Biden introduced his July 4 vaccination aim in early May, he mentioned assembly it could show that the United States had taken “a serious step toward a return to normal.” For many individuals, that appears to be the case. The president mentioned then that Americans would be capable to collect in backyards for small Independence Day barbecues; his gathering of 1,000 friends is partly geared toward exhibiting the nation that his administration has exceeded expectations even when vaccinations have stalled.
While Biden has repeatedly spoken of “independence from the virus,” Arthur L. Caplan, director of NYU Langone Medical Center’s medical ethics division, mentioned the president needs to be cautious concerning the language he makes use of.

“Before I went out and had my fireworks and sipped piña coladas on the White House veranda, I would say, ‘I’ve got to make clear, as president, we have major challenges unresolved,’” Caplan mentioned. “I would say, ‘We’re doing well at halftime.’”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s prime medical adviser for the pandemic, mentioned there was nothing contradictory concerning the administration’s message.
“You can still celebrate at the same time as you get your message very, very clear,” he mentioned, including that the White House message stays the identical: “If you are vaccinated, you have a high degree of protection. If you are not, you should wear a mask and you should think very seriously about getting vaccinated.”