Four weeks in July: Inside the Biden administration's struggle to contain the delta surge

Thread title changed to match linked article.

Today, we're closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus," Biden said to a crowd of mostly unmasked guests gathered on the South Lawn of the White House. "We've gained the upper hand against this virus. We can live our lives, our kids can go back to school, our economy is roaring back."

But in the days after the White House groundskeepers had stowed the white folding chairs and pulled down the paper lanterns, a measure of concern set in among some aides.

"We're going to pay for it," one administration official said privately shortly after the event.

Over the next month, the surge of delta cases that overran the country forced Biden and his top aides and Cabinet members to reckon with their overconfidence, which led to a host of decisions - on masks, vaccines and other pivotal issues - that had to be reversed or revised as the crisis spiraled out of control. The administration had been caught flat-footed - and then took weeks to enact a plan in an attempt to catch up.

"This has been nonstop scrambling," said Irwin Redlener, who directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Earth Institute.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/four-weeks-july-inside-biden-011403253.html

 

Biden can't admit mistakes and regroup. He couldn't do it in Iraq, he couldn't do it during the 2009 recession and non-recovery, he can't do it here in Afghanistan, he can't do it here. Biden and his COVID staff have done more to confuse and scare people than any other but he will not send some packing. Same with Afghanistan, do you think he will fire Blinken and Sullivan at the least? Nope.
Interesting editorial in the WSJ and about Kennedy and how he had to get rid of the yes men in the staff after the Bay of Pigs and change the way decisions were made. The point being that is what Biden needs to do but slight chance he will.

All the President’s Yes-Men
JFK remade his decision-making process after the Bay of Pigs debacle. Biden could learn something.

...
In the aftermath of the Afghanistan disaster, the Biden administration should consider this history. Part of the problem with the Afghanistan decision-making process was that the president didn’t appear to be hearing dissent from his political aides. Some military and intelligence advisers seem to have pushed back against withdrawal, but his top political aides, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, were reluctant to do so. The pair raised the possibility of Taliban attacks on U.S. forces and diplomats, as well as on Afghans who worked with the U.S., but neither disagreed with Mr. Biden, knowing that he had made up his mind. This is reminiscent of Johnson and the Vietnam War. It also suggests that a Kennedy ExComm approach, in which some meetings take place without the president, might allow aides to question administration policies more freely.

The National Security Council process, which is supposed to develop interagency consensus on foreign policy and defense issues, can raise different points of view, even uncomfortable ones, if the president allows it. But Mr. Biden has to be willing to allow robust internal debates, and he must signal that he and his team won’t ostracize those who put forth contrarian ideas.

Another problem is that Biden seems particularly sensitive to stories about internal disagreements. According to the book “Lucky: How Joe Biden
Barely Won the Presidency” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, Mr. Biden dislikes “process stories,” by which he means news articles about “palace intrigue.” If aides know the president doesn’t want to read about infighting, they will strive to make him happy by minimizing behaviors that signal disagreement...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/presid...linkin-sullivan-11629641380?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

 

This is Fake News. The Biden White House doesn't make mistakes. Just ask the Leftists on Afghanistan. It was a perfect process, except the "Trump parts".

Clearly, this is Trump's fault for creating the virus in the first place and personally murdering 400,000 Americans... almost getting him to Hillary Clinton numbers.

Did I mention Trump enough to be a Leftist?

 

yes, Biden thought we would all be vax'd by now

sadly, many Americans choose not to get the jab

 

Bidet prolly thinks the sun rises in the North too. Is that a viable excuse? No....No, it's not.

 

Everyone pay attention to this here.

This is a person who is slowly but surely realizing what a **** up of a president he voted for lol.

Wont be long before he openly admits it. Just takes time.

 

You were close. Now if you had thrown in 1/6, white supremacy and 5000 Taliban prisoners you would have earned your official CRT membership badge.

 

Why don’t you mention which specific Americans by percentage aren’t getting the jab?

 

what did you want Biden to do exactly, force people to get the vax?

 

I have plenty of times, Trump supporters and Minority males are the two biggest groups not getting the jab

 

Oh I wish he would! Please reckless racist joe, do this!

haha.

 

Thats racist.

 

Why is that a problem?

Or does my body my choice only apply when you want to murder a fetus?

 

The root of this thread ...

 

I don't think you understand the Revolutionary War. Are you an American?

 

perfect

 

your right, it's not Biden's problem, it's those that refused to vax

that is part of living in a free country, that is my point, nothing Biden could do

 

There is nothing he should do. If people don't want the "vaccine" that's their business.

 

that is true, he can educate people, but nothing more than that

educate people on their choices, and then they decide and take the risks

I also do not agree with seat belt laws or anti-smoking laws, anti-drug law, ect...

educate people and they decide

the government job is to try and educate us, show us the facts and let us decide

 

COVID Delta spreads because fat Republican in Alabama don't get the vaccination

 

Ordering his CDC to tell [then] 1/3 of Americans to take their masks off knowing full well everyone would is what caused delta to become as strong as it has. Personally I think it was intentional. Not by Joe's design, but by those who run him.

 

Hey @FreshAir, I got your back. @Steve N, another #FAIL.

Unvaccinated Americans Whiter, More Republican Than Vaccinated

https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/unvaccinated-americans-whiter-more-republican-vaccinated

 

Ditto of Trump?

 

Instead of a propaganda campaign to try and help out his financiers and the drug industry. I agree.

Well I disagree with the idea that they should educate us because the education is typically propaganda. Education is also a personal choice just like the decision to smoke or to get the vaccine.

 

Dumb post.

Conservatives have a lot of nerve blaming Biden for the spread of the delta variant when its conservatives who are facilitating the spread by denying science. It's southern red states that are surging right now. Mostly states that have banned mask mandates and states full of people who refuse to get vaccinated.

I give blame where blame is due. I blamed Biden for his withdrawal in Afghanistan because it was patently his doing. I blame conservatives for the surge in COVID-19 because it is patently their doing.