Are we ready for a winter COVID surge?

Are We Ready for A Winter COVID Surge? We think it would be wise for the President to address the nation in the coming days about COVID.  Do a check in of sorts, let the American people know about the very real progress we’ve made, the very real challenges ahead.  There is much good news to share – vaccines for 5-11 year olds, the booster, coming therapeutics, expansion of rapid at home testing options.  The President can also remind voters that many of the challenges we face now in what has been a very rapid recovery – inflation, supply chain, worker shortages – are due to COVID, and the harder we work to defeat COVID, the faster we will get back to something close to “normal.” 

It is our belief that the main driver of the President’s job approval decline since the spring has been the public loss of faith in his management of COVID, the #1 issue in the country.  We fear what might happen to his standing if the US experiences a serious return of COVID this winter, as we are seeing in some European countries now.  It is why we strongly recommend that the President get out ahead of the coming surge, address the nation and make it clear that defeating COVID is the #1 priority of his Administration until the pandemic is actually behind us.  It is the central reason the President was elected, the job is not yet finished, and as our new analysis shows it remains the #1 issue for voters Democrats will be talking to in 2022.