A Washington Post story on Wednesday said that Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, is “attempting to significantly escalate his public presence” amid the current health crisis.
Whoever told him that would be a good idea is a liar.
True, Biden, like every Democrat, can count on the national media to kid-glove him, allowing him to serve as an armchair quarterback while the Trump administration grapples with the spread of the coronavirus. But there’s a question Biden has yet to be asked, and which he’ll eventually have to answer for.
There’s an immediate need nationwide for millions of one-time-use medical supplies — especially face masks that help protect healthcare providers from infected patients. Multiple reports say that doctors and nurses are forced right now to use one mask for an entire day due to the shortage.
That a mask costing less than $1 has to be rationed out in the richest country on earth during a pandemic is probably the most depressing tragedy to have happened in my lifetime.
How did this happen? That’s the question Biden should be very, very afraid of answering.
In 2005, the Bush administration warned against a potential new influenza outbreak stemming from Asia and publicized a plan to combat not only that possibility, but any disease that might rapidly spread throughout the country. It devised a plan to respond in part by “Ensur[ing] that our national stockpile and stockpiles based in states and communities are properly configured to respond to the diversity of medical requirements presented by a pandemic, including personal protective equipment, antibiotics and general supplies.”
A year later, Congress allocated funds for a national stockpile of more than 150 million masks, according to Farhad Manjoo at the New York Times.
In response to the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the Obama administration dipped into that reserve and distributed the vast majority of those masks and other supplies.
In all the years since, seven of which took place under Biden and the Obama administration’s watch, the stockpiles were never properly replenished, according to a March 10 story in the Washington Post.
The Trump administration could have at any point addressed the issue from 2017 to now. But if Biden thinks he can claim credit as some type of steady hand at the helm, while under his watch the national medical supply reserve depleted without refill, he’ll have to reconsider.
