Joe Biden Needs a COVID Exit Strategy

Biden's forever war against COVID is a ticket for exhaustion and ever more polarization.

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Maybe President Biden should handle COVID-19 the way he’s handled Afghanistan.

It’s a strange thought, given how badly he botched the U.S. withdrawal. But at least Afghanistan Joe had a clear idea about what we needed to do. COVID Joe has no such exit strategy. He’s making it up as he goes.

“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” Biden proclaimed on Aug. 31—and he meant it.

However, he has no problem with a forever exit from the pandemic.

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  1. Kurt Von Fuchs

    One of the things I really appreciate about the dispatch is the insightful and intelligent comments that you won't find an almost any other new site. I agree with almost all the commentatorsThe way out is vaccines. Those who are not vaccinated are affecting everyone in the country. I am against Presidential and administrative fiat. Except in an emergency. 10,500 deaths a week qualifies for me. I support this mandate.

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    Ben Connelly

    Many of the commenters seem disappointed with Jonah’s criticism of Biden about the vaccine mandate. Perhaps because they believe that it will fuel the anti-vax crowd or because they believe we need to use every tool possible to end COVID. I understand where they’re coming from, but I don’t believe in simplifying complex issues down to the point of not criticizing someone because people you disagree with on something have also criticized him.

    Ultimately, I agree entirely with Jonah.

    I’d like to say that I am vaccinated, I would encourage everyone to get vaccinated, and like many here, I’m pretty fed up with the people who refuse to get vaccinated. But I do not believe the federal government should have the power to mandate that people (other than federal employees and military members - who they absolutely should mandate) take the vaccine. Actually, I think states also should not have the power to limit the ability of businesses to mandate vaccines. Businesses should mandate vaccines. But they should have the choice to do so. They should not be compelled to do so.

    Also, this mandate doesn’t even affect a large cohort of people. Anyone who is self employed, or retired for instance.

    The rule of law and limitations on power are more important than short term goals (including ending a pandemic). The important thing about the Constitution is that it limits power. Including the power to do what we want. Including the power to do good things. Why? Because in the end, in the long run, that is far more important to preserving a free society.

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    Melissa

    Why do we need joe Biden to “protect” us? Mitigation should be done personally or locally, should hospitals become overtaxed. That should be the exit strategy.

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    Saied

    Biden is a terrible salesman for the vaccine. He should hire a kick ass ad agency and speak with credibility by believable spokespersons and convincing messages to each segment of the target population. But, alas, that would be practical public health initiative not politics as we practice it in these troubled times.

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  5. Robert Bailey

    130,000 infections a day. And, you’re tired of it Jonah? Yes, some people are vaccinated and have large families—young kids unable to get vaccines and yes, need protection from the unvaccinated idiots. And there are plenty of “break-thru” cases of vaccinated adults becoming infected and sick. Trump declared his “total authority” (stupid as he is and as it sounds) and then abdicated most of his responsibilities. A pandemic does call for a strong federal response. Trump undermined that.He undermined state responses! (“Liberate Minnesota! Liberate Michigan!” Blah, blah) Biden seeks to use his powers and even then in a fairly mild way. People are indeed out of patience with the Trumpy, Quey crazies.

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    Matt J

    I've never understood this one line of thinking in politics that goes, "We can't fix it 100%...therefore we give up."
    Yes, maybe covid is here to stay. Does that mean we should blithely accept that a couple tens of thousands of people will never get vaccines and die from it, along with the flu? I should hope not. We had no problem getting a smallpox jab in every arm, and that seemed to work out. We need to get some gravel in our craw before a new variant comes along that we aren't equipped to deal with. The more jabs in arms we get, the less likely that is to happen.
    OSHA seems a fitting agency to pick. As an engineer who deals with OSHA regulations as a part of my job, yeah, they're a pain in my neck every step of the way. We still follow them, and there's no doubt the structures we make are safer as a result. If the cost of saving lives is a minor inconvenience for all involved, we as a civilization have already made that decision.

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  7. Mary Stine

    Yeah, I'm worn out with this as much as Jonah. And I'm just as pissed about Afghanistan, so I'll leave that alone. For context, I am known as a very patient person, or "the lawyer for Osama Bin Laden", as my son tells it.
    So, while I have a little different take on this, I agree with Jonah on this: this is NOT the time to intensify our culture wars, nor wave aside democratic norms. This is the time to appeal to our "better angels", assuming we have any left.
    Having said this, I am not sure Biden was speaking only about the physical protection of more people being vaccinated. He's not a graceful, erudite speaker like Obama or Reagan, so some things get mangled. It seems possible that he is speaking about ending the mental strain we are all under with this virus. Getting a larger percentage of people vaccinated would surely help with that for many of us. And as a fellow grandparent of toddlers, I can imagine his worries about the possibility of the little ones getting this, even if that seems remote to some people.
    We desperately need some perspective on this from someone apolitical, compassionate, very calm and also logical...is the Dalai Lama in the house??
    Because the Dalai Lama would probably tell all of us to take a deep breath and relax, and then have compassion for each other, no matter which side we're on. And then maybe we could focus on our better angels.

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    Amanda

    Don't quite agree with the statement: 'This is the only way to make sense of Biden’s rationale for the mandate: “We’re going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers.” ' -- The ONLY way? Ah, no.

    'By his own account, the vaccinated are generally safe from severe illness even with breakthrough infections' : well, but we weren't talking about 'breakthrough infections' before Delta -- and now it's a thing. A very dangerous thing: some people, vaccinated, die from it. As for 'generally safe from severe illness': I don't want to get sick from this thing AT ALL. It is not the cold; it is not 'your grandma's flu'. Or even the flu you've had a few times in your life. This is much more dangerous. No one talked about 'Long flu' and the diminishment of one's faculties with other coronaviruses. Now, with this virus that the Chinese deliberately extracted from a bat cave to take to their lab -- for no good reason, as events have proved -- we are exposed to something far more existentially threatening in the short term and compromising in the long term.

    As I put it elsewhere:

    As a vaxxed person, I know that
    a) the Delta variant (and possibly any future variants that arise) is not what my vaccine was designed to combat, and therefore has a greater chance than the earlier iterations of 'breaking through';
    b) I can still get ill from Covid despite the vaccine (and this was always the case) because vaccines aren't shields of invincibility -- they simply prevent the worst scenarios of needing life support in hospital and/or dying from it;
    c) If I DO get Covid, I can't expect that it will be quickly over or that I won't suffer from long-term effects known as 'long Covid'.

    For all these reasons, the unvaxxed represent a threat to my well-being. This is why Biden, a president I do not like never mind respect, says what he says. Because even if an infection from the unvaxxed won't actually KILL me, it can still make my life a misery -- through THEIR fault, not mine.

    As the Trump bullies always liked to say: It's a binary choice, folks. You get the vaccine and society can move on more or less as normal, or you DON'T get the vaccine, and you keep dragging us through the nightmare.

    Funny how the refusing Trumpies are much less interested in the idea of a 'binary choice' when it doesn't suit their paranoias and prejudices.....

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    1. Mary Stine

      12 hand claps!

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        Amanda

        Well, thank you very much, Mary! : )

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  9. GregS

    Trump had a COVID exit strategy. It looked a lot like his Afghanistan exit strategy.
    Just declare it over (COVID will be over by Easter, we'll be out of Afghanistan by May 1st, or January 15th if you believe Bob Woodward).
    When bad things happen, pretend you didn't say what you did, say something racist, insane, or both, and everyone will forget the last thing you did.

    Biden could exit Afghanistan because exiting was in itself the end.
    Biden can't exit COVID, because COVID will be around and killing people whether or not he decides to exit. Just declaring that COVID is now endemic and "moving on" would be like "exiting" Afghanistan by just cutting off all communication with the US soldiers there.

    You're tired of doing something about COVID when it is killing 1500 Americans daily. Biden doesn't get that luxury, even if people are tired of hearing about it. It's called leadership - telling people things they may not want to hear, because they need to hear them.

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    BrandonAlleman

    Not following this premise here. Biden had a goal in Afghanistan but no plan. For covid he has a goal of getting people vaxed but Jonah doesn't like his plan. Fair enough but the rest of this is too clever by half.

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      Bill Nelson

      Biden doesn’t have a plan. He’s taking actions but there is no plan.

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        BrandonAlleman

        Life is what happens while you're making plans! Getting more people vaxed seems like a plan to me. Whether his goal should be a mission accomplished moment as I think Jonah wants or he' ll succeed I'm not sure.

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          Bill Nelson

          Getting people vaccinated is a goal. A plan consists of actions and milestones. And actions are measured to determine if they are helping accomplish the goals.

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            Matt J

            He's using OSHA to create a mask/vaccine mandate. That's the plan.

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            BrandonAlleman

            Okay got me I can't keep it straight. I have to admit I have very little invested in this hair splitting semantic battling and am happy to concede. What's a good plan then?

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