We are about a month and a half into the Biden Administration, so we can begin to evaluate what has been done so far. President Biden promised to govern based on the advice of experts and scientific evidence. Rather than attempting to compare him to the ongoing train wreck that is former President Donald Trump, we should evaluate him based on the standards he set for himself. The promises to depoliticize expertise and bring back bipartisanship are what I will be discussing here.
The easiest and most obvious fix was a focus on mask-wearing. Widespread and proper wearing of masks is our first defense against the spread of COVID-19, but there are large swaths of the population that have simply refused to put them on. One of Biden’s first executive orders was to mandate masks in federal spaces. This is good and it could have been much better if it was accompanied by a large-scale public information campaign encouraging masks indoors. Further, coordination with governors would have been great if possible. Texas and Mississippi just lifted their mask mandates. It’s possible overtures were made behind the scenes to discourage this action, but they certainly weren’t public.
Next up, we have vaccinations. Operation Warp Speed was implemented under the Trump Administration and threw gobs of money at vaccine development and helped pharmaceutical companies find vaccines in record time. Distribution, however, was disastrous. The drastic improvement under the Biden Administration in the logistics aspect may be partly because they have been much better at sharing information with states, but we should have expected improvements regardless. Further, pressure on the FDA to speed their approval process for vaccines is not nearly high enough. They have been sitting on the AstraZeneca vaccine for months now despite overwhelming evidence of its safety and its use in the UK and Canada. These delays are generally bad, but completely unacceptable during a pandemic. Biden’s biggest accomplishment in this area was the deal he brokered between Johnson & Johnson and Merck. Production of the vaccine is supposed to be high enough to get one to every American by the end of May. With that action alone, Biden has done us all a great service.
With vaccinations coming along and cases plummeting again, you would think schools would begin to re-open. President Biden has said publicly that he is in support of school re-openings. That is a little bit disingenuous, though, because the guidelines the CDC released on when to re-open schools are unduly conservative. Over 90% of schools would be unable to do so and it has just given cover to teachers’ unions that would prefer to wait on returning to in-person schooling. A cynical reading of the situation is that he is trying to take a publicly popular stance while actually bowing to the demands of powerful public-sector unions. Regardless, damage to students unable to attend school is very real and there is a growing body of evidence that risk to both students and teachers is actually quite small (assuming reasonable precautions are taken).
Lastly, and perhaps most pressingly given the status of the legislation, an economic recovery is underway, removing the need for the scale of stimulus now being debated. We know this because of supply chain pressures. Producer prices have skyrocketed with surging demand surprising even the most optimistic corporations. Insistence on the full $1.9 trillion is irresponsible and will handicap our ability to do any sort of spending on infrastructure or innovation. I realize that economics is not exactly a science, but the need to increase the targeting on the stimulus package is very clear. It would also give Biden the chance to show that he meant it when he said he would push for bipartisanship as it would bring some Republicans on board.
President Biden’s approval rating is now polling at 60% and is rising. No politician is more popular right now. He has been refreshingly compassionate after the past four years. Still, he can do better. Following the science means looking at the entire body of evidence, not just that which says what is expedient.