Biden Yields to Pressure With Weak COVID Battle Plan

WASHINGTON - Dec. 21, 2021 - PRLog -- President Joe Biden's speech today on his approach to the raging pandemic will reportedly not include a key weapon and component which has been widely recommended by his advisors and other experts, thereby lending weight to the suggestion that Biden, like Trump, is playing politics with the pandemic, argues public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

In the light of damning evidence, released by the House Subcommittee on the Corona Virus Crisis (https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov/files/SSCCInterimReportDec2021V1.pdf), that Trump administration officials made "deliberate efforts to undermine the nation's coronavirus response for political purposes," and a report that The Biden Administration Has Been Sidelining Vaccine Experts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/16/vaccines-fda-cdc-boosters-expert-panel/), some might wonder if President Joe Biden's administration might also be putting politics ahead of saving lives by sitting on a proposal being considered - and in some cases recommenced - by his own COVID advisors to require vaccinations for airline flights, suggests the professor.

What else explains this refusal to take a simple common sense proposal which would encourage tens of millions not even subject to his other COVID requirements - which are now largely and indefinitely tied up in the courts - to protect themselves and others from what the White House has called a "winter of severe illness and death," when it has worked so well in Canada, and much stricter vaccination requirements have had to be put into effect in many other countries, he asks.

Courts have blocked Biden's vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in half the states, and his vaccine mandate for federal contractors has been blocked nationwide.  His signature- and most potent weapon - a federal requirement under OSHA that employees of large companies must be vaccinated or frequently tested - has been postponed beyond its starting date, and is unlikely to survive a challenge already in the U.S. Supreme Court.

If there are no valid reasons or good arguments for not requiring flyers, who haven't acquired some immunity as a result of having the disease, to receive at least one shot before boarding a plane, he should announce such a rule on Tuesday, or increase the suspicion that he is not doing everything he could do to save lives because of political pressure, argues Banzhaf.

The new and ever-growing COVID surge - which could result in "one million cases per day" in the U.S. according to departing NIH director Dr. Francis Collins - demands bold action and new initiatives, not more platitudes and pleading; anything less represents a failure of presidential leadership, and provides a sure path to losses of majority control of both Houses of Congress, Banzhaf warns.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf