The reality, however, is that most of the steps the administration plans to take are continuations or modest expansions of existing initiatives, and some experts doubt they will do much to change the pandemic’s current trajectory.

“He’s facing a hostile public, a hostile political opposition and a hostile judiciary,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University global health law professor in touch with the White House. “And so the only things left to do are things that are largely ineffective.”…

But even as the president promised that his new approach “pulls no punches in the fight against Covid-19,” his administration is stopping short of the more aggressive measures that health experts believe would more quickly rein in the pandemic — like vaccine mandates for domestic travel, more rigorous public health restrictions and enforced quarantines — wary of further inflaming GOP opposition and demoralizing an exhausted public.

Political divisions have already stymied many of the administration’s efforts to end the pandemic. The White House is in the midst of a legal fight for the survival of sweeping vaccine mandates for employers and health care workers, which Biden officials have cast as crucial tools for inoculating the vast majority of the nation.