Block or no block: US President-elect Joe Biden faces a difficult decision

Joe Biden faces a decision unlike any other incoming US president: whether to back a short-term national shutdown to finally stop a raging pandemic.

For now, it’s a question the president-elect would rather avoid. In the week since defeating US President Donald Trump, Biden has devoted most of his public comments to encouraging Americans to wear a mask and view the coronavirus as a threat that does not take political ideology into account.

But the debate has been more lively among members of the coronavirus advisory board that Biden announced this week. One member, Dr. Michael Osterholm, suggested a four- to six-week lockdown with financial assistance for Americans whose livelihoods would be affected. He later backtracked on his comments and was refuted by two other panelists who said it shouldn’t be considered a blanket lockdown.

That’s a sign of the tough dynamic Biden will face when he takes office in January. He campaigned as a more responsible administrator of America’s public health than US President Donald Trump, and has been forthright about the challenges ahead for the country, warning of a “dark winter” as prices rise. cases.

But talking about blocks is especially tricky. For one thing, it is nearly impossible for a president to enact them on his own, requiring the bipartisan support of state and local officials. But more broadly, they are a political flash point that could undermine Biden’s efforts to unify a deeply divided country.

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“It would create a backlash,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, adding that such a move could make the situation worse if people do not comply with the restrictions. “Blockades can have consequences that diminish the value of this approach.”

During his first public appearance since losing the election, Trump signaled on Friday (local time) that he would not support a lockdown. The president, who has yet to publicly acknowledge Biden’s victory, would likely reinforce that message to his loyal fans once he leaves office.

Still, the number of victims of the pandemic continues to rise.

The coronavirus is blamed for 10.6 million confirmed infections and nearly a quarter of a million deaths in the U.S., and the closely watched University of Washington model projects nearly 439,000 deaths by 1 March. Deaths have risen to around 1,000 per day on average.

New cases per day are skyrocketing, breaking records. The latest came on Friday, when more than 184,000 people tested positive, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Several states are beginning to revert to some of the restrictions first imposed during the spring. But leaders in much of the country are proceeding cautiously, aware that Americans are already fatigued by the virus-related disruptions.

In fact, after Osterholm made his comments, several members of Biden’s task force came out to publicly deny the possibilities of closure. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former US surgeon general who serves as one of the co-chairs of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, said the group is looking at a “series of restrictions that we dial up or down.” depending on the severity of the virus in a given region.

“We are not in a place where we say that the whole country is closed. We have to be more specific, “Murthy said on ABC. Good morning america. “If we don’t do that, what you’re going to find is that people get even more fatigued. Schools will not be open to children and the economy will suffer the most, so we have to follow the science, but we also have to be more precise. “

Speaking on CNBC, Dr. Celine Grounder, an infectious disease specialist at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and another member of the task force, said that, “As a group, the consensus really is that we need a more focused approach. nuanced “.

“We can be much more geographically focused. We can also be more specific in terms of what we close, ”he said.

During the campaign, Biden vowed to make the trials free and widely available; hire thousands of healthcare workers to help implement contact tracing programs; and instructing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide clear, expert-informed guidance to businesses, schools, and local officials on reopening in regions where they have closed.

To prepare for potential case surges, it would prepare Department of Defense resources to provide medical facility capacity, logistical support, and medics and other medical personnel if needed. Biden would also use the Defense Production Act to increase production of masks, face shields and other personal protective equipment to help alleviate shortages in hospitals.

But Biden himself fueled some of the confusion over his stance on the lockouts during the campaign. He initially told ABC that he would “listen to the scientists” if they advised him to shut down the country, then took a more nuanced position.

“In my opinion, there will be no need to shut down the entire economy,” he said at a town hall in September.

Even if a national shutdown made sense, polls show Americans’ appetite for a shutdown is waning. Gallup found that only 49 percent of Americans said they would be “very likely” to comply with a stay-at-home order for a month due to an outbreak of the virus. A full third said it would be highly or somewhat unlikely that they would comply with such an order.

Kathleen Sebelius, who was secretary of health and human services during the Obama administration, said it would be wise for Biden to keep her options open for now, especially when Trump criticizes the closures.

“It is a very dangerous issue” politically, he said. “I think that, wisely, the president-elect does not want to enter into a debate with the incumbent president about some kind of mandate that he has no authority to implement.”