Biden did in fact have a plan to deal with vaccine holdouts. It involved persuasion (such as publicly getting the vaccine himself, something Trump refused to do), cash payments, and then the eventual imposition of mandates. Republicans have undermined all these steps — not just the mandates but also refusing Biden’s plan to pay $100 to get the jab. Even such modest measures as Sesame Street characters encouraging children to get vaccinated have drawn complaints from the likes of Ted Cruz…

It is especially daft to insist that the coronavirus-vaccine mandate has polarized the country when vaccine mandates have been standard for generations. What has made this vaccine mandate polarizing is the fact that Republicans decided to polarize it.

Despite devoting an editorial to lamenting Biden’s alleged failure to have a plan to handle the pandemic, the Journal doesn’t even gesture in the direction of what said plan should look like. This is surely because any elements of such a plan would inevitably alienate Republican constituencies.