Biden appears to be over Covid protocols

For two days straight, the White House told anyone who would listen that President Joe Biden was taking his Covid exposure seriously by following a strict set of public health precautions.

Then Biden strode into a room full of people on Wednesday and reduced those precautions to a punchline.

“I’ve been tested again today, I’m clear across the board,” Biden said, smiling as he held up his face mask. “They keep telling me, because it has to be 10 days or something, I gotta keep wearing it. But don’t tell them I didn’t have it when I walked in.”

The joke earned muted laughter from the audience. But outside the State Dining Room, it served as further confirmation of what many public health officials and outside experts have long come to believe: The president who once pledged to eliminate Covid altogether has grown significantly less worried about it. And may be all but over it on a personal level.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and former Covid adviser to the Biden transition. “Because as we begin to see the number of deaths rise in the country, Covid is still with us."

The episode marked the second day in a row that Biden appeared to disregard his own administration’s pandemic protocols. On Tuesday, barely a day after the first lady tested positive for Covid, aides insisted the president would wear a mask while around others at a Medal of Honor ceremony. But Biden removed his face covering to give opening remarks and never put it back on — even as he stood inches away from 81-year-old honoree Larry Taylor. He then left the event, maskless, by walking through the crowd.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said Biden's abrupt exit was meant to limit his exposure to the other attendees, though it came at the tail end of the nearly 20-minute ceremony.

Biden dispensed with even that minimal show of caution for Wednesday’s White House event, focused on ports and supply chains, once again contradicting assertions that Jean-Pierre made hours earlier by refusing to wear a mask throughout the entire session.

The nonchalance may have reflected the larger societal desire to move past the stricter health precautions that defined the early Covid era — precautions that once served as a point of pride for a newly inaugurated Biden administration.

But it still alarmed some public health experts who had once cheered on Biden's Covid response for adopting a mantra of "follow the science," and now worry that the president is undermining his own public health messaging amid an uptick of cases. It also reflected lingering tension within the administration over how to approach an issue widely regarded as a political loser — even as it remains an ongoing health threat.

The government is due to roll out its latest round of Covid vaccines as early as next week, which it has urged people to get on the basis that the virus still poses a serious danger. Biden's behavior risks eroding the high ground that Democrats have claimed on public health issues, experts warned, where they've portrayed Republicans as anti-science for flouting basic Covid precautions.

“This reflects the mood of the public,” Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and former Obama-era health official, said of Biden's casual attitude toward the virus, “but sets a dangerous precedent for careless Covid behavior."

The White House did not directly address Biden's decision to go maskless, though it disputed the notion he doesn't take Covid seriously and noted he's so far tested negative. In a statement, spokesperson Kelly Scully also touted the effectiveness of the administration's Covid response.

“When President Biden took office, he committed to leading with science, getting Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, opening our nation’s schools for in-person instruction, and saving lives from the virus," Scully said. "Because of this whole-of-government strategy, we have more tools and systems available today to protect communities this fall and winter season, including updated vaccines that will be available mid-September, widely available tests, and effective treatments.”

Well before this week, Biden and his administration have signaled a desire to follow much of the public in moving past the Covid era. The White House earlier this year dismantled its Covid response team and allowed a three-year public health emergency declaration to expire with minimal fanfare. It also adopted an increasingly relaxed approach toward Covid, insisting the virus poses little threat to most people as long as they’re vaccinated and seek out treatment.

The administration has continued to work extensively behind the scenes to monitor Covid and bolster its broader pandemic defenses, including pursuing a range of next-generation vaccines.

But Biden’s own exposure and the resurgence of the virus have put the White House in more of a bind: juggling the need to tout best practices with the political reality that few Americans still rate the virus as a top concern.

Inside the administration, some senior officials have argued in favor of minimizing the amount of time the White House itself spends publicly talking about Covid issues, said two Democrats familiar with the dynamics who were granted anonymity to speak freely. They maintain that Biden should devote his attention to more politically advantageous topics like the economy, leaving the Covid messaging to his health officials.

But others countered that the White House can't stop talking about the virus altogether and risk appearing caught off-guard by new developments.

Biden’s own exposure was seen by some in that group as an opportunity to reinforce the administration’s central Covid accomplishment: Thanks to the vaccine, the biggest concern for the 80-year-old president exposed to the virus is not whether he’ll survive it, but whether it might derail his trip to the G-20 summit in India later this week.

Instead, Biden, who prides himself on his instinct for gauging the public mood, went his own way.

“If it were me, I would have still worn my mask,” said Osterholm. “When we’re talking about respiratory etiquette … that’s just a courtesy to others as much as it is your responsibility.”