The COVID Pandemic Isn’t Over, But Biden’s New Deal–Size Ambitions Seem to Be
The pandemic, which continues to kill hundreds of Americans a day, is an argument for transforming US health care. But now Joe Biden is claiming the pandemic is over — signaling not just that he’s in denial but that he’s dropped any New Deal–size aspirations.
Last month, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator announced the federal government would stop buying vaccines, treatments, and tests for the virus by the end of this year and open the door to the full “commercialization” of these pandemic-fighting tools. (Picture Alliance / Getty Images)
Ever since vaccines were first rolled out, most Americans have, understandably, behaved in their personal lives as if the coronavirus pandemic had ended. But over the weekend, President Joe Biden caused a stir by seeming to make it official.
Asked by 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley as they strolled through the Detroit Auto Show if the pandemic was over, Biden agreed. “The pandemic is over,” he said. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. It’s wh — the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”
Part of what made Biden’s comments so controversial is how divorced they seem from indisputable plain facts. How can the pandemic be over, critics pointed out, how when between four and five hundred Americans are dying from it every day and when an estimated 16 million working-age Americans are suffering from “long COVID,” with two to four million of them having dropped out of the workforce?
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