The COVID-19 Pandemic

The President faces the most challenging part of the COVID-19 public health crisis yet, as the Omicron variant rapidly spreads across the country, bringing an already nervous nation to the edge. While the President can find comfort in the fact that the surge seems to be quickly subsiding in some of the first-affected and most heavily vaccinated populations, in part thanks to the smooth rollout of vaccinations and boosters, the case counts have spiked to their highest levels in the entirety of the pandemic. This has led the President to authorize one billion at-home testing kits and a large number of good-quality masks to be sent out to every American by mail. These decisions have been endorsed by the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont amidst a squeeze on the medical system. The effect of these measures are yet to be seen as are the political implications of the Omicron variant. Before these recent announcements, a series of vaccine mandates were seen as some of the President’s most powerful tools in fighting the pandemic. However, the conservative supreme court recently struck down the mandate on large businesses, while upholding the mandate on healthcare workers. While the ruling was definitely a blow for the administration, the administration has vowed to keep pushing ahead in their vaccination efforts. In a best-case scenario for the President and the country, the virus sees a crash in the coming weeks followed by relative stability. This plays into the fact that as goes the virus, so goes public sentiment. The President’s approval rating in particular has been quite in tune with the rise of new variants.