How will Biden handle COVID?

Arguably the main reason Trump is about to lose is his perceived handling of  COVID. How do you all predict Biden’s strategy will be different? National mask mandate? National lockdown? Contact tracing? Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.

 

One of the big things I am hopeful for is improvement of centralized messaging. We have to get away from this "it's going to go away" and "the states can do whatever they want" bullshit. What does that mean? Maybe national mask mandates. Hopefully also a handing of the reigns to experts.

One of my biggest hopes here is that we get someone who actually understands the power of the president's words insofar as how they impact peoples' actions. A measured approach to communications is important, not this stream of consciousness word diarrhea we get now.  

 

gufmo

One of the big things I am hopeful for is improvement of centralized messaging. We have to get away from this "it's going to go away" and "the states can do whatever they want" bullshit. What does that mean? Maybe national mask mandates. Hopefully also a handing of the reigns to experts.

It's not like experts haven't flipped a dozen times on travel, masks, lockdowns and whatever else. But yeah, I'm sure that more centralization will fix that. 

Never discuss with idiots, first they drag you at their level, then they beat you with experience.
 

neink

gufmo

One of the big things I am hopeful for is improvement of centralized messaging. We have to get away from this "it's going to go away" and "the states can do whatever they want" bullshit. What does that mean? Maybe national mask mandates. Hopefully also a handing of the reigns to experts.

It's not like experts haven't flipped a dozen times on travel, masks, lockdowns and whatever else. But yeah, I'm sure that more centralization will fix that. 

Experts revise their opinions as they get more data.  That's called science.  That being said, most medical professionals have consistently stressed that mask-wearing will reduce spread.  As for travel... who is saying that is a "good" thing?  People go back and forth on whether it's worth the economic consequences of lockdowns, or travel bans/quarantines/what have you, but no one is saying those things are helping prevent the spread of the virus.

The messaging has been pretty consistent from the medical community.  The problem is half this country gets its news from Fox/Mr Trump (who are mostly interchangeable), who have been awful about providing helpful information that disagrees with their worldview.  It's just not possible to look at the messaging coming from the White House, which from Day 1 has been to tell people that this is a hoax, or isn't a threat, or whatever you please, and not draw at least some connection between that and the fact that it's traditionally conservative areas which have seen cases rise or fail to fall off over the last six months.

Put simply, Biden physically cannot be worse on this issue than Mr Trump, and I'd argue it's why Mr Trump is about to lose this election.  It won't hurt that cases are likely to get a lot worse while Mr Trump is in office (simply because of the oncoming winter, if nothing else), which should leave Mr Biden an easy way to at least improve numbers.

 

-Mask mandate in most states Depending on how bad covid gets in Q4 possibly a one month lock down somewhere around February (that’s when covid start ominously spreading a lot in 2020)

I imagine by Q2 2021 things will start to look up. Mask mandate will still be around, still encouraged social distancing when possible, but life slowly returns back to normal as restaurants and bars start to open etc.

If our timeline is anything like the pandemic of 1918, we should be doing fine by next spring - Covid is weakening (not even favoring in modern medicine)

 

Biggest change will be messaging. I would look to see regular updates like back in March. Fauci and Birx on every news network. Dr. Atlas will be giving people radiation and will no longer be speaking to something he doesn’t know about.

With all of this being said, by the time Biden takes office we will likely have a proven effective vaccine and therapeutics all developed under the Trump administration. We will also have a huge amount of spread and immunity from recent infections throughout the US. So Biden will inherit a rapidly improving economy and, at least a few months into his tenure, a rapidly improving pandemic even if he just sits around with a thumb up his ass.

 

Hold on there with the vaccine talk. Nothing has been proven. On top of that, most people probably won’t take it because of mistrust in government. I do think the situation would get better because Biden believes in science. Biden’s actions during the pandemic will be more consistent and reliable. I highly doubt Biden would back another lockdown. It would kill an already fragile economy. Major Wall Street guys have been backing Biden’s re-election like Jon Gray. There would be pushback from them. 

 

This hits the nail on the head. We’ll likely have a vaccine at least in the hands of vulnerable populations and ramping up distribution by the time Biden takes office and at the very least be in the down leg of the third wave.

The heavy lifting will have been done.

I’ll be very happy with a Biden presidency that looks like his campaign. Just sit in the White House basement and do nothing.

 

He will acknowledge that he is not a scientist, epidemiologist or physician and will defer to experts in those fields to light the way. Not attempt to discredit science because his ego doesn’t like that he doesn’t understand it or declare that the pandemic is over because he wants it to be.
 

So basically proceed like a normal human being instead of a trigger happy narcissist

 

The way you handle COVID by putting the right people in charge and letting them feel secure in their authority bc you will back them up - effectively what Cuomo did. Trump's and de blasio's failure is that he has led from behind every step of the way, including only banning travel to/from china AFTER the 3 US major airlines had already suspended flights.Everything these guys do is "we'll have to see" and has so much ambiguity that it gives no certainty.

I hope, if elected, Biden will do this. Appoint a COVID Czar, give that person emergency powers and demand a phased plan for the country. Create KNOWABLE tests (if X% then we do Y until we are Z%) - this is what markets like, this is what societies like.

Defined rules with knowable standards and consequences. You can't predict what will happen but you can clearly define a framework by which you promise to govern. When other players push back on your czar (as republican states have on the CDC), you BACK UP YOUR PEOPLE. You use the immense powers you wield to reinforce authority. Trump/De blasio have never done this, choosing instead to pass the buck and avoid blame,  with catastrophic results.

As I said, I hope this is what Biden does because we are in for a very bad winter. 

Array
 

I think you are vastly overestimating the power that some federally appointed bureaucrat would have over state governments. The federal government can’t even make state or local police departments enforce federal law. Idk who you think would enforce non-legislated federal policy without an established legal or administrative framework. 

 

I mean, ICE operates pretty effectively as a federal agency, as does Homeland Security. There are plenty of on-the-books laws which allow the president to declare emergency powers to get the situation on the ground calm, then you control behavior with allocation of funding. 

Array
 

Trump really screwed himself in his handling of it which in return probably swayed those independents. And I say that mainly with him just simply caring. I mean, US isn’t the only place still being impacted by it..look at Europe, however, Trump has shown zero encouragement or anything aside from downplaying it and shrugging it off. I thought he did a great job back in March/April and then just stopped caring.

 

I think the biggest mistake Trump made in his bid for re-election was turning the fight against COVID into a culture war. His base actually believes him over a majority of the medical community when it comes to how best to prevent the spread of COVID. He harped against prevention measures way too much because he know social distancing and lockdowns would negatively impact the economy, which essentially sinks an incumbent's chances at re-election. It turned away "moderates" and energized Democrats (and Republicans) to vote in record numbers. Unfortunately for Trump, the popular vote usually swings towards the Democrats, so the more people come out to vote, the more likely it is that the Republicans will lose the election.

 

The only time in recent history that the popular vote swung right was for GW Bush’s reelection. Fortunately for Trump/Republicans, and unfortunately for Dems and democracy, we still have the electoral college where most of our votes don’t mean shit

 

Let citizens decide how best to protect themselves and their familes.   Of course this is heresy now that dems in charge.   "We will tell you what to do."       

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