What good is the CDC and our Congress if nobody who represents us is willing to talk about a virus that continues to impact millions of American lives?
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Democrats and Republicans greet Covid spike with a collective shrug; Any current debate on [Covid] is relatively meaningless,” said one pollster.
By Adam Cancryn and Lisa Kashinsky, 08/28/2024 05:00 AM EDT
"Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing coming out of their respective conventions: Almost no one cares about Covid anymore.
"Infections are running rampant after the Democratic confab in Chicago, with staffers on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, reporters and other convention-goers all stricken — and in at least one case claiming the positive test was “worth it.” Cases also cropped up after the Republican National Convention in July.
"And yet the single most-animating issue of the 2020 election is an afterthought for the major-party nominees coming out of two of the 2024 campaign’s biggest milestones — even as the virus remains an ever-present threat that’s shaped broader debates over key electoral issues like strength of the economy and the future of families’ health and child care.
"Both campaigns have struggled with how — and how much — to address a pandemic that the U.S. never fully defeated, but that few Americans still want to dwell on.
"Former President Donald Trump has bemoaned in speeches and interviews that he “never got the credit that we really deserved” for helping accelerate vaccine development in 2020, even as he later cast doubt on the shots’ importance and has more recently maneuvered to gain the backing of prominent vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his supporters. Harris lauded President Joe Biden for bringing the pandemic “under control” when she took over his campaign but has hardly mentioned Covid since. Both parties have blamed the other for allowing deaths to spike under their watches.
“It’s very difficult to talk about politically, because it’s still
present and neither side wants to acknowledge that this pandemic is
still around,” said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former
Trump administration appointee with a background in global health.
"But “if it continues to worsen,” Bartlett said, “both parties will be forced to address it.”
"The rhetorical vacuum around Covid comes even as cases have surged over the summer, hospitalizing thousands and killing nearly 700 people in one week in late July. Though that is far less than during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Covid still ranks as a top-10 cause of death — and more broadly, a disease capable of disrupting people’s everyday lives.
"Yet Americans have never been less interested in the virus. Just a fraction of adults are seeking out new Covid vaccines each year, and even fewer wear masks or take the basic precautions that were once seen as standard.
“Voters do not like it being brought up at all,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic strategist and pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, who marveled at the near-total absence of masks at a Democratic convention where roughly 20,000 people crammed into Chicago’s United Center for a week. “They want to get over it.”
"With Covid receding from voters’ collective conscious — even as reports of post-convention cases keep coming — strategists posit it’s likely best for both candidates if talk of the pandemic fades away with it.
“Trump would be smart to just not talk about it,” said Mark Graul, a Wisconsin-based Republican consultant. And given the “relation” between the pandemic and the Biden-led economic recovery effort that voters now associate more with soaring inflation than rapid job growth, Graul said, “I’m not so sure it’s a smart move for [Harris] either.”
"Lake, who has conducted focus groups across the battleground states, added that the only voters who bring up Covid now unprompted tend to be hardcore Trump supporters eager to bash the Biden administration’s response. And even those who might be inclined to side with Democrats on the issue prefer health care messaging that excludes mention of the pandemic.
"Inside a Biden White House that has now reoriented itself around electing Harris, senior officials have continued to keep an eye on Covid, wary of a particularly dangerous flare-up during the key stretch of the election that could force the virus back into the public consciousness and damage Democrats politically.
"But much of the day-to-day work has been shifted out of the White House and back to a Health and Human Services Department far less tied to political dynamics of the moment.
"The Food and Drug Administration just approved updated Covid vaccines that are now rolling out widely. Those will be central to a just-launched fall campaign led by HHS called “Risk Less. Do More.” encouraging people to get both their Covid booster and flu shot in tandem. The administration also plans to restart its distribution of free Covid tests at the end of September.
"Biden
and Harris, though, are not expected to play much of a public role in
that effort, driven in large part by a recognition that most Americans
mulling their vote ahead of November don’t want to hear about Covid —
and a White House that has little desire to remind them."
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