By nearly every metric imaginable, Biden is failing miserably as he is poised to give his first State of the Union address.
How bad is it for Biden? He is underwater even in deep blue California.
In California—a state that Biden won with 63.5 percent in 2020—a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll published on February 16 has found that 48 percent of residents disapprove of Biden, while 47 percent approve of the job he’s doing.The UC Berkeley poll was conducted from February 3 to 10 among 8,937 California registered voters and had an estimated margin of error of +/-2 percent.
So in preparation for his first SOTU, Biden is clinging to the one policy that initially had wide voter support: His handling of the coronavirus pandemic. As I noted in an earlier post, the address will likely note that the administration will now transition to a “endemic response” approach and declare victory over covid.
Seemingly to that end, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is revising masking guidelines.
The agency is using different metrics than before to determine whether to recommend face coverings, the CDC said in a Friday news briefing.Under the old guidelines, masks were recommended for people living in communities of substantial or high transmission, which applied to roughly 95% of U.S. counties.The new guidance will consider hospitalizations, current beds occupied by COVID patients and hospital capacity, in addition to caseloads. The metrics would put more than half of U.S. counties – where more than 70% of Americans live – in areas of low or medium risk, according to the CDC data.
Unfortunately for school children, masking will still be the order of the day . . . unless you live in a free state like Florida or Virginia. And air travelers will still have to mask up.
The agency is still advising people, including schoolchildren, to wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That’s the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans live.The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn’t stop wearing masks.
It is being reported that the White House put pressure on the CDC to alter the terms of its response ahead of Tuesday’s speech.
Is this true? Let’s just say that the data is suggestive.
The White House has been eager for the CDC to provide an update on its indoor mask recommendation, although it wants the agency to get it right and it doesn’t want to appear as though it is putting political pressure on the agency, said the two people familiar with the plans, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.The White House declined to comment on the issue, and the CDC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, states are slowly extracting themselves from ‘The Science’™.
When President Donald Trump gave the State if the Union address, I made an evening out of it and watched intently. I am going to give this dreadful event a pass, but I will look forward to all the memes, gifs, and videos that will likely be generated.
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