Issuing dire new warnings is not where Mr. Biden or his top advisers expected they would be at this point in the year.
The plan was to overwhelm the virus with vaccines that would all but stop its spread and allow the country to fully reopen. In July, Mr. Biden went so far as to declare the nation close to “independence from a deadly virus.’’ When the Delta variant upended those plans, Mr. Biden accelerated efforts to deliver vaccinations and booster shots to as many Americans as possible.
But by the end of this week, some schools, restaurants and theaters had closed and many Americans felt they were back where they started two years ago. Mr. Biden’s health advisers did what they could to paint a brighter picture…
Perhaps most ominously, Mr. Biden will enter 2022, a midterm election year, amid growing concerns about the economy, just when he hoped a receding pandemic would improve voters’ outlook.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member