The NPR Politics Podcast - How Successful Was The Biden Administration In Battling COVID This Year?

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

The Biden administration laid out his main priorities as he took office: tackling the pandemic, responding to the climate crisis, addressing racial inequality, and rejuvenating the economy. Over the next few weeks, the NPR Politics Podcast will check in on how those goals are going.Building on President Trump's Operation Warp Speed, the Biden administration managed to make vaccines widely-available across the country within a few months of taking office. Convincing everyone to take the vaccine proved a bigger challenge, and now the country is facing another surge of the virus,This episode: White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and health correspondent Allison Aubrey.Connect:Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Tamara Keith. And I also cover the White House. We're doing some podcasts to close out the year. And we're focused on what President Biden said would be his four main priorities during his first year in office. Those priorities are racial equity, fighting COVID, climate change, and building the economy. Today we're going to talk about the pandemic and we

have here with us NPR's Allison Aubrey who covers the pandemic for our health team. Welcome Allison. Oh great to be here. Thanks for being here. And thanks for being here throughout the pandemic to help explain all of these things to us. It has been my pleasure, though I wish, you know, the topic were a little cheerier. Yeah, yeah. I'd like to retire this topic, but we can't. Well, I think we all would, but we're not there yet. So let's start at the beginning of Biden's term, though. It's January. And obviously, the coronavirus pandemic is his biggest challenge. And the administration did hit the ground running. The first thing or big thing was the pandemic aid, like they did get a lot of money out of the door, right?

They did get money out the door. Working with Democrats in Congress, it was not bipartisan, but they got it done quickly. They passed a massive COVID relief bill that sent $1,400 direct payment checks to people. And there was a lot of money directly aimed at fighting the pandemic. Things like helping businesses and purchasing more rapid tests, for instance. And today, Biden actually announced that the government is purchasing another 500 million, half a billion at-home rapid tests that the government will mail to Americans who request them on a website starting in January. And this was probably the biggest new measure that he announced in a speech this afternoon. And so, I mean, the money got out the door. And then the other focus was vaccines, because at first and people, you know, it's time is like a flat circle or whatever. People may not remember, but it was very hard to get a vaccine back in January.

Like they were not widely available. This administration did get them widely available, but they have not been able to force people or to get people to convince people to persuade people to take this vaccine. Like there are a lot of people who haven't done it. Yes. Well, I mean, I think if you go back to when Biden took office, remember, the conversation back then was a lot about how do we do this? Where's the supply? Like, where do we actually get people vaccinated? Remember, the mass vaccination sites were just getting up and running in January. So really, that was the challenge the first couple of months. I'd say by the spring, the conversation had really turned to how do we convince the people who haven't gotten it,

which at that point was a whole lot of Americans to do that. So that's where the president started to run into a bit of trouble. Yeah, I was talking to Andy Slavitt, who was a top advisor working on the COVID response in the White House for the early part of the administration. And he said, coming in, they knew that they had three populations that were going to be hard to reach. People of color, young people who feel invincible, and conservatives of the strain who are sort of, you know, anti-institution, anti-establishment, don't want to be told what to do. They ultimately have had great success in vaccinating people of color, even reaching younger people. But when it comes to conservatives, they hit a wall. And it's a real problem. And they don't seem to have

a complete solution to it. You know, I think hesitancy is really a problem because Americans have really relaxed their behavior. I mean, fewer people are masking, fewer people are distancing. So, you know, the boosters and the vaccines are the key way that we have to protect ourselves. I think part of what Allison said here points to a bigger philosophical thing that's happening, which is that the pandemic is becoming invisible in a lot of ways. The U.S. recently hit 800,000 lives lost from COVID. And there were, you know, there was a little talk about it, but there wasn't a big public memorial service. There wasn't the urgency that there was at the beginning of this year. I do think that people are exhausted all around. Across the country,

people have gone on with their lives.'re you know people are out there living at this point but the thing of it is is that regardless of whether you remember the the the virus or not like the virus remembers you so even though it's like you may not be thinking about it you may be going about your life but then your family member dies and your whole life is upended. And so even though that may not be a national news story, families are upended, directions that people are going to take in their lives because maybe you had a father and you lost your father and you were going to go to college. Now you're not.

You're going to stay home. So even though it is not seen, it is very present. I interviewed a woman named Carrie Paisano. She's in San Diego. She's a nurse, but she has not been able to work for the past almost two months because she is so devastated. Her grandmother and her uncle, it turns out, weren't vaccinated. She thought they were. And it turns out her uncle believed a lot of the misinformation on the internet and didn't get grandma vaccinated. Uncle wasn't vaccinated. And they both died in October. And she kind of feels like the country has moved on, but the risk is still very real. It has absolutely devastated my world.

I don't think I will ever be the same after this. It really is heartbreaking. And, you know, as we crossed the 800,000 threshold analysis points to, you know, just like we just heard from this nurse who's hurting, you know, one in 100 elderly people lost their lives during this pandemic. So imagine how many people have those same stories. And, you know, I mean, with people dying, losing so many older people, so many, so many lives lost, the government, the administration has looked for ways to try to, you know, get people to take the vaccine to save lives. And one thing that they have attempted is these mandates, trying to get bigger companies to require their workforce to get mandated as a way to get maybe those people who are on the fence, but who need a paycheck to go ahead and get vaccinated, and it could save their life.

You know, I really think if you look to the healthcare sector, which was the first place, and it makes sense to put mandates into place, the very first hospital to do that was Houston Methodist. And I spoke to the CEO who made the decision. And he said, look, it was very unpopular was particularly unpopular in the media, everybody who wanted to complain did. We were sued not once, but multiple times, we won every lawsuit. Today, more than 99% of the people who work there are fully vaccinated. And this has enabled him to keep all of his workers on the job and take care of sick people. He said he didn't want to do it, but he had to. You know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? We hear a lot about the people complaining. But I think big picture, if you really look at it, mandates have been very successful. And I think the example at Houston Methodist Hospital really paints the picture. At this point, the world seems to be in the midst of another big and very dangerous wave with the Omicron variant.

Allison, you know, before we get into the politics, like, what do people need to know about this variant and what it is going to mean for this country? Well, it's going to move through really quickly, Aisha. I mean, this is at least two times more transmissible than Delta. It is spreading quickly. It took less than three weeks for it to go from one case detected to now being detected in most states. So it is inevitable that there's going to be a surge this winter. So far, many of the cases are mild. But as it spreads to more vulnerable people, even if just a small fraction land in the hospital, this could be enough to overwhelm hospitals, and that really is the risk. Yeah, and healthcare workers, as we've discussed, are already burned out and just like done. Yeah. And the thing is, here we are at the end of 2021 and we are talking about another very dangerous wave just as people are getting ready to meet up with their families for the holidays. Biden administration, it is two years of pandemic, of being in a pandemic, and like, it's not ending,

like, right? Like, this, this is not something that people are getting, or society is getting past, right? I think the big risk here is that there could be a real clash between apathy and Omicron. I mean, behaviors are very relaxed right now, compared to last spring. There's a lot of survey data that shows that. And the messages that have been coming from the administration are like, oh, look, we have all the tools, just go get boosted. Well, we're kind of out of time for everyone to get boosted. At the moment, there are about 55 million people boosted. In order to protect against Omicron, we need way more than that boosted. I also think that the administration is boxing itself in a little bit.

I mean, we've heard White House advisor Jeff Zients say, look, there will be no lockdowns, we're going to get to keep schools open, when in fact, if you look around what's happened in the last 10 days, businesses in New York, where Omicron is already spreading fast, have gone virtual in a big way. Offices are canceling parties. Colleges moved finals online. There's new conversations about, you know, plans for virtual teaching again. I think it's really hard for the administration to kind of walk this political tightrope, saying, look, you know, we have the tools. Don't worry. It's not 2020. All the while, look what's happening right now. And I think this is a real concern.

Yeah. And so, I mean, we go into the new year? Let me just say that making predictions is impossible always, but especially with COVID. It has been, it has confounded every prediction that has been made. So I think that what we can predict is more uncertainty. I also think we can predict that, look, the winter surge from Omicron is basically inevitable. I think that, again, the hope is that most cases are mild. The reality is when it hits vulnerable people, some are going to be at risk.

So all of the projections out there are that the death toll that stands at about 800,000 right now moves to about a million by the spring. You know, look, these are projections. They're predictions. Our hope is that people wake up, that everyone gets boosted, that people take precautions. But when I look around at what the modelers are saying, all the models right now are red hot. I mean, a million people is unthinkable. But, you know, the unthinkable has happened time and time again.

And that's kind of a dark note to end on. But it's the reality. I think if we want to end of a dark note to end on, but it's the reality. I think if we want to end on a bright note, look, there are things you can do during this holiday. If you don't want Omicron to, you know, meet apathy at your door, here's what you do. You get everybody in your family boosted who's eligible. You mask up when you're in public places and you limit contacts in these next few weeks, especially if you're going to visit elderly relatives. All right.

Well, let's leave it there for today. Allison Aubrey, thank you so much for stopping by virtually and, you know, giving us your sharing your knowledge with us. Thanks for having me. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I cover the White House. I'm Tamara Keith. I also cover the White House. And'm Tamara Keith. I also cover the White

House. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.