The United States passed another grim milestone on Wednesday, when the coronavirus death toll topped 250,000.
Cases of the virus are rising in every state but Hawaii. Hospital conditions are worsening by the day, with patients cramming into cafeterias and parking garages. It’s likely that every American will soon know someone who has been infected.
Our graphics department even debuted a new color — a dark purplish red — on The New York Times’s online coronavirus case map to capture the record rates of infection.
Yet, in the face of this entirely anticipated crisis, Washington is doing very little. After so many months of this tragedy, there is still no coordinated federal response to the virus.
“The general strategy is abdication,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist affiliated with Georgetown University, who says it’s possible that as many as 300,000 more Americans could die of the virus before Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. “There are going to be a lot of unnecessary deaths, a lot of unnecessary cases of Covid that didn’t need to happen.”
There are no signs of any change in strategy coming from the current administration.
President Trump is more focused on litigating a settled election than combating the virus. Since Election Day, he’s held one public event — an update on his administration’s effort to develop and distribute a coronavirus vaccine. Other than traveling to his golf course, the president has remained holed up inside the White House.
At the same time, the government he leads has been offering mixed messages.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that Americans avoid traveling and gathering with relatives for the Thanksgiving holiday. And later in the day the White House coronavirus task force held its first news conference in months, urging Americans to remain vigilant as they wait for a vaccine. But on Wednesday, Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, called some local guidelines limiting Thanksgiving gatherings “Orwellian.” (States that have imposed fewer virus containment measures now have the worst outbreaks, according to a New York Times analysis.)
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And Congress once again left town this week without any kind of economic relief deal. Politico reported that Senate Republicans did not even discuss a stimulus package at their weekly lunch.
The lack of federal coordination has left state and local governments to pursue a patchwork of measures, while public health officials face continued skepticism from some Americans who still doubt the severity of the virus — some even from their hospital beds.
Europe provides an alternative vision: After several weeks of lockdowns, new cases seem to be slowing in Germany and France. (Both countries kept schools open.)
A number of public health experts have said that another round of temporary shutdowns will be the only way to slow the spread of the virus in the United States, too. Without economic relief from Congress, though, new restrictions could plunge millions of Americans and small businesses into even more financial peril.
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None of this should come as a surprise. Throughout the summer and fall, experts repeatedly warned that the colder months would bring worsening conditions as people were forced indoors. “Winter is coming,” they practically shouted.
Of course, change is also coming in Washington. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s transition team is developing plans to deal with the virus. But Inauguration Day is nearly nine weeks from now.
“People need to really manage their expectations about this because without question, he has a tremendous challenge,” Ms. Rasmussen said of Mr. Biden. “There will be some things he can do on Day 1, but they’re not necessarily going to make an immediate impact.”
Mr. Biden has promised an aggressive national approach that includes pushing for mask mandates, providing economic aid to local governments, helping to manage the distribution of a vaccine, expanding testing and rebuilding support for public health agencies. “There is a real desire for a real partnership between the states and the federal government,” Mr. Biden said Thursday after meeting with a bipartisan group of governors.
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But his ability to plan those steps is already being hampered by the refusal of a Trump administration appointee to sign the paperwork that would grant Mr. Biden’s transition team access to funds, equipment and government data.
Once Mr. Biden is in office, his effectiveness will greatly depend on the relationships he can build with Republican governors and a closely divided Senate — a task that he has already admitted will be a challenge.
The sad reality is that the mounting death toll could help Mr. Biden’s efforts, Ms. Rasmussen said. Those grim numbers could finally change attitudes toward the virus, prompting more Americans to adopt measures like mask wearing and social distancing.
“I like to think that most people presumably don’t want Americans to be dying en masse, or have seen how it has affected their own families,” she said. “It’s very grim and horrible, but if anything good can come out of it, it might be that when Biden is sworn into office people are more willing to take the pandemic seriously.”
The New York Times