The White House has quietly met with outside health experts to plan a pandemic exit strategy and transition to a “new normal,” but behind-the-scenes efforts collide with a very public reality: a string of blue state governors have beaten President Biden by suddenly giving up their mask mandates.
The governors’ moves — New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Wednesday she was dropping a statewide mask or vaccine mandate — are increasing pressure on the Biden administration, and in particular the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to provide guidance to the state on mask-wearing and other restrictive measures.
The management has so far been reluctant to do so. Jeff Ziens, Mr Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, said during a news conference on Wednesday that fighting the Omicron wave remains Mr Biden’s top priority.
“We are working on that guidance; we are currently working to follow the trends,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, during the briefing. But she warned, “Our hospitalizations are still high, our death rates are still high, so while we’re working towards that and being encouraged by current trends, we’re not there yet.”
The meetings with outside experts are intended to develop an updated pandemic scenario that, in part, looks at how mitigating measures such as mask-wearing could be relaxed, while it is planned that a new variant could emerge. Mr Zients referred to Wednesday’s sessions but gave no details, other than focusing on “steps we should take to move the country forward.”
Mr Biden has already indicated that he is looking beyond the pandemic. In comments, at a press conference in January, he said the nation is “moving towards a time when Covid-19 will not disrupt our daily lives, where Covid-19 will not be a crisis, but something to protect against. But the president then also said, “We’re not there yet.”