Are They Going to Shut Down Again Due to Coronavirus

President Biden Joe Biden Defense & National Security​ — Biden sends new warning to Red china Free energy & Surround — Interior to continue oil leasing plans Health Intendance — Fauci warns of cases rising again MORE is resisting schoolhouse closures and other shutdown measures in the confront of the highly transmissible omicron variant as the public grows increasingly weary about a seemingly never-ending pandemic and confusion over mixed messages from health officials.

Biden is trying to urge people to have precautions, just his spoken language on Tuesday represented a shift from earlier messaging. No longer is he endorsing strict mitigation measures, such as nonessential business closures, and the concept of social distancing is hardly mentioned.

Merely Biden is facing the limits of what he can accomplish. The administration is pushing testing and vaccines, which it cites every bit part of the reason for not needing stricter pandemic measures, but in that location is no political ambition for anything stronger.

Biden's new tone instead reflects the reality that COVID-xix is here to stay and that Americans should non exist expected to completely upend their lives once more.

The U.S. never had a nationwide lockdown like other nations did. Even during the summit of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, each governor made his or her ain decisions almost the level of restrictions to enact state by land.

Still, health experts and assistants officials generally agree that widespread shutdowns of businesses and other in-person settings are unnecessary because the U.S. has widespread coronavirus vaccines that protect confronting serious illness.

"This moment is much different than March 2020. We have tools to continue people safe and will continue using them to exercise so," White Firm coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients Jeff ZientsThe Loma'due south Morning Study - Biden to warn Xi confronting arming Russia Wellness Care — Pelosi shoots higher on COVID-xix funding White House COVID-19 response coordinator Zients to leave post More than said during a White Firm conference Wednesday.

Further restrictions would besides exist massively unpopular, and Biden is already dealing with sagging poll numbers and a country exhausted by the seemingly never-ending bicycle of exploding case numbers. The prolonged closures and restrictions terminal year had a damaging consequence on the economy that the country has merely partially bounced back from.

"The public is thoroughly disillusioned and by the signal that they volition accept a closure of society or that their kids are going to get abode and learn remotely once again," said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law professor at Georgetown Academy.

"From a public health point of view, what we've seen from lockdowns is that every time we lock downwardly, we do dampen downwardly the virus, just as soon every bit we open again, it roars back," Gostin said. "We oasis't demonstrated whatever long-term benefit from lockdowns."

Just even if it's not on the same level as 2020, the U.S. is starting to see some signs of disruption to operations it did non experience during the delta variant wave that began hitting the U.S. in the summer.

Some Broadway shows have been postponed, or even closed for good, later on outbreaks. Restaurants are also shutting their doors due to infections or exposures among staff.

In the Washington, D.C., area, dozens of schools have resorted to virtual learning for the residuum of the twelvemonth; Prince George's County schools in Maryland said they will exist virtual until at to the lowest degree mid-January.

The NHL became the first U.S. professional person sports league to intermission its season after a rash of outbreaks among teams. The league also withdrew its athletes from the Winter Olympics in February.

But the White House is not endorsing any closures or pauses, especially in schools. With vaccines widely available for children as young every bit 5, Biden is leaning into policies such every bit mandates as a way to force the consequence.

"We can go along our M-through-12 schools open, and that's exactly what we should exist doing," Biden said Tuesday.

Once a school or commune announces plans to go remote, it puts pressure on others to follow suit. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University Schoolhouse of Public Health, said in that location's no reason for anyone not to be learning in person, at any level.

"I call up it's irresponsible at this point to do that," Jha said in an MSNBC interview Mon.

"Nosotros accept all the tools to keep schools open and safe: vaccinations, testing, improvements in ventilation. Tens of billions of dollars take gone to schools. ... If I hear of a single school district that goes remote but keeps bars open, what that says to me is they don't intendance about kids and they don't care about COVID," Jha said.

Republicans tried to make school reopenings a major political issue at the start of 2021, accusing the Biden administration of bending to teachers unions. A recent White Business firm memo distributed to Democrats about progress in Biden'due south first year said that 99 percentage of schools are currently open, compared with 46 percent earlier Biden took part.

Biden also recently endorsed "test-to-stay" programs that let kids who have been exposed to COVID-nineteen to avoid quarantining every bit long as they test negative.

The federal government largely does non control whether businesses, sporting venues or schools close due to the threat of the virus or whether they implement mask or vaccine mandates. Those decisions mostly fall on state and local officials.

But Biden tin use his bully pulpit to make a recommendation one way or some other, as he did when he needled Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis Ron DeSantisBiden's moves on Venezuela become flashpoint in Florida Florida country legislature approves state's biggest upkeep always The Memo: Go ready for Biden vs. Trump all once again More  of Florida and Greg Abbott Greg AbbottCalifornia bill seeks to brand state a 'refuge for transgender children and their parents' Michigan AG: 'Paxton is a walking hate offense' Texas mail ballot rejections soar nether new restrictions More  of Texas for barring mask mandates in schools.

Bill Galston, chair of the Brookings Establishment's governance studies plan and former Clinton domestic policy aide, said that Biden recommending farther lockdowns would be a "grave footstep" that could further split the country and inspire opposition from Republicans.

"It will merely give them some other opportunity to emerge as faces of the resistance," Galston said.

That doesn't mean in that location aren't other aggressive, potentially politically fraught steps that health experts think Biden should accept.

Leana Wen, professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, said the administration should institute a national vaccine passport plan to arrive easier for businesses that want to require proof for indoor activities. She said the administration should stay abroad from any mention of closures or lockdowns.

"Lockdowns are the ultimate blunt instruments. That is what you employ when you have no other selection. At that place are so many steps you lot could accept earlier reaching that betoken. And as well, once you lot use that blunt musical instrument, it's very hard to use information technology once more," Wen said.

Gostin said that Biden should require proof of vaccination for domestic flights, something the White Firm has said is on the table. Only he noted that Biden has met resistance to his other vaccine-or-test mandates for businesses and wellness workers.

David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Schoolhouse of Public Health, said information technology'southward important to exist realistic about the bear on of any potential policy changes.

"I retrieve empowering people to test themselves is a good thing. I think encouraging and fifty-fifty mandating vaccination is also likely to accept an important effect," Dowdy said.

Still, any major change would probably take also long to implement, and given the signs from South Africa, cases may start falling every bit shortly every bit in the next month.

"So I think the key is, what can we do to support people to brand the right decisions right at present, similar today and tomorrow, to take the edge off this wave?" Dowdy said.

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Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/587032-biden-resists-shutdowns-as-omicron-threat-rises

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