Biden grappling with “pandemic of the unvaccinated”

© Provided by Associated Press
President Joe Biden tries to hear the questions shouted by reporters as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Friday, July 16, 2021, to spend the weekend at Camp David. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) – Two weeks after celebrating America’s near ‘independence’ from the coronavirus, President Joe Biden faces the disturbing reality of rising cases and deaths – and the limits of its capacity to fight against the persistent hesitation with regard to vaccines responsible for the summer regression.

COVID-19 cases have tripled in the past three weeks, and hospitalizations and deaths are increasing among those unvaccinated. While rates are still down sharply from their January highs, officials are concerned about the trend reversal and what they see as unnecessary illness and death. And cases are expected to continue to rise in the coming weeks.

While the national emergency may have faded, officials say the outbreak is now a more localized crisis in communities where not enough people have rolled up their sleeves.

“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated,” Biden said Friday, echoing comments made earlier today by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The growing numbers are due to large pockets of infection among the more than 90 million eligible Americans who have yet to receive a vaccine. Only four states with low vaccination rates accounted for 40% of new cases last week, and nearly half of them were from Florida alone.

But there is little appetite in the White House for a return to broad mandates for masks or other measures, as 161 million Americans are already fully vaccinated.

Reflecting this mindset, Walensky said on Friday that in areas with low vaccination rates with an increase in cases, “local policymakers might wonder if masking at this point would be something that would be helpful for their community.”

Some communities are taking action. Los Angeles County on Thursday reinstated its requirement to wear masks in most indoor environments, regardless of vaccination status, and health officials in Las Vegas on Friday recommended that workers and customers at the tourist hotspot wear face covers inside.

With three highly effective vaccines licensed in the United States, the Biden administration believes the most effective way to attack the virus isn’t to try and slow the spread with mass masking and the like – something the United States showed it was not very good last year – but to continue to stress the importance of vaccinations.

It is not an easy solution. Many Americans remain resistant or demotivated to get vaccinated, despite months of often creative efforts by federal and state officials and the private sector to disseminate information about vaccine safety and accessibility.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy added that while government can play an important role, “it has to be an all of the above” strategy with everyone “including schools, employers, tech companies and individuals. .

In recent days, the administration has focused on young Americans. He enlisted pop star Olivia Rodrigo for a day-long visit to the White House on Wednesday with Biden and top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci, who has been widely documented for social media. Young people are the least likely to experience side effects from the virus and have been shown to be among the least likely to be vaccinated.

© Provided by Associated Press
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during the daily White House briefing in Washington, Friday, July 16, 2021. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)

But another huge group has proven to be an even more vexing challenge: Republicans. The White House has long recognized that, given the widespread misinformation about vaccines and the nation’s partisan divisions, it would have little success in convincing the GOP to join us. Instead, administration officials have stepped up criticism in recent days against public officials and social media companies for spreading or not condemning the vaccine misinformation spreading among the GOP.

“They’re killing people,” Biden said Friday of the social media companies. A day earlier, Murthy, the surgeon general, had warned that false vaccine information spreading on platforms such as Facebook posed a risk to the nation’s public health.

“We will not be distracted by accusations that are not supported by the facts,” Facebook spokesman Kevin McAlister said in a statement. “The point is, over 2 billion people have viewed authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines on Facebook, which is more than any other place on the internet. “

The government’s new expression of frustration comes amid near disbelief that tens of millions of Americans continue to refuse to be vaccinated, unnecessarily prolonging the pandemic and costing lives, as health officials point out that almost all severe cases and deaths are now preventable.

More than 99% of deaths from COVID-19 and 97% of hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, according to the CDC.

The pandemic is now “the one that mainly threatens unvaccinated people,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said on Friday.

He said the Biden administration expects an increase in cases in the coming weeks due to the spread in communities with low vaccination rates. But Zients added that there is a sign that the increase in cases is prompting more people in these communities to get vaccinated, noting that “states with the highest case rates are seeing their vaccination rates increase” more faster than the national average.