President Biden is opposing school closures and other shutdown measures towards the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
President Biden is Resisting Strict Mitigation Measures Over the Omicron Variant
COVID-19 is here to stay and Americans should not anticipate having their lives utterly upended once again, although Biden is still urging the people to take precautions for the safety of everybody. Furthermore, the United States has never had a nationwide lockdown compared to other countries. All governor that administrates every state in the United States made their resolution on the scope of restrictions to apply state by state. In addition, the government are suggesting everyone be fully vaccinated and get tested from time to time, using them as a justification for not requiring more stringent pandemic precautions, but there is no political support for anything tougher
The Health experts together with the administration officials sided with the idea that the significant closures of workplaces and other in-person settings are unnecessary in the United States since coronavirus vaccinations that protect against severe disease are widely available. The White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients statements during the House briefing on Wednesday saying that the March 2020 outbreak is much different than today because as Zients utters that there are equipment’s to keep people safe and will continue to do so.
Effect of the Closures and Restrictions Last Year in the US
Last year’s extended closures and limitations had a detrimental impact on the economy, from which the nation has only partly recovered. However, even if it is not on the same scale as 2020, the United States is beginning to notice signals of interruption to operations that it did not witness during the summer’s delta variant wave. Furthermore, some Broadway plays have been postponed or even stopped entirely. Restaurants are also closing their doors owing to employee diseases or exposures.
At the start of 2021, Republicans attempted to make school reopening a big electoral issue, accusing the Biden administration of caving to teachers’ unions. According to a recent White House report given to Democrats highlighting success during Biden’s first year, 99 percent of schools are now open, up from 46 percent before Biden’s election. Additionally, Biden has backed “test-to-stay” programs that enable children who have been exposed to COVID-19 to escape quarantine if they test negative.
Bill Galston, head of the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program and a senior Clinton domestic policy adviser, said Biden’s recommendation of more lockdowns would be a “grave step” that would further split the nation and motivate Republican resistance.
Leana Wen, a George Washington University professor of health policy and management, said the government should establish a national vaccine passport program to make it simpler for companies to demand evidence of vaccination for indoor activities. She said that the government should abstain from making any allusion to closures or lockdowns since they are the ultimate blunt instruments in her opinion.
Moreover, Gostin suggested that Biden should demand evidence of immunization for domestic flights, a suggestion that the White House has made. He added, however, that Biden has encountered opposition to his other vaccination-or-test proposals for companies and health care employees. Still, any significant modification would almost certainly take too long to execute, and given the indications from South Africa, cases might begin to decline as soon as next month.
