Bina Venkataraman, Boston Globe Editorial Page Editor & former White House disaster policy adviser joins Cheddar News to discuss the current state of the pandemic as well as Biden's handling of the crisis 

None of the Above 

Boston Globe Editorial Page Editor Talks Biden's Handling of Covid-19

Welcome back to none of the above presents the state of the Union. No one really could have predicted this global pandemic. Not even the globe's leaders and unfortunately for former President Donald Trump, the coronavirus fell on his shoulders and then was handed off to the incumbent president. Once Biden was elected in November of 2020 here to break down the latest from the pandemic as well as this. President's handling of the virus is boston globe editorial page editor and former White House disaster Policy advisor Bina Venkataraman Bina, nice to see you again. Thank you so much for taking the time. Especially ahead here, just a few minutes and when the president is expected to speak so covid case numbers being a they have returned to pre omicron levels. How much of a role are you expecting the pandemic to play tonight in the President's remarks? Expect the president to of course address the loss and suffering from this pandemic. And even though we're in a particularly good moment now with case numbers falling. As you've noted, the omicron peek behind us, there's been an accumulated toll of this. We're nearing the one million death mark here in the United States from the pandemic and also accumulated toll of the isolation and the precautions. We've been taking a fatigue that's really settled in among the american people uh in terms of dealing with the pandemic and the restrictions that it's involved in the economic loss. It's involved the loss of work. The loss of time with family and the grief. And so I expect this empathetic president to relate to the american people and their experience of the pandemic but also to sort of sound a positive note. We're in a midterm election year. People are ready to focus on the positive. I would expect him to be gazing ahead and talking about reduced restrictions. We know on the coming days, the administration is going to be releasing a strategy for looking ahead in the pandemic which should involve investments in testing and treatment centers and continued vaccine distribution, but also a sense of reducing some of those public health restrictions that have been in place over the past two plus years. So I think we're going to see the President talk about Covid 19 but he also has so much more to cover his social spending and climate spending agenda of the build back better act of course. And he's really eager to see Congress passed that and build public support for that. But he's also addressing a global audience in this speech. So we know that he's addressing Vladimir Putin in the speech. He's addressing our NATO and european allies. So covering the pandemic is going to have to fit in the context of addressing a whole host of real priorities as well as this real diplomatic win. He's had in forming the coalition to respond to Russia and getting bipartisan should support for those sanctions. Yeah, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelinski even telling reporters in the Ukraine earlier today, he will be listening to what the president has to say. So certainly the eyes of the world are on this being a as you know, this last fourth of july joe biden stood there, He declared our independence from the virus, the omicron variant several months later had other plans in store. What should americans take into account if they do hear words of optimism once again from this president with regards to where we are in this pandemic. Well, I would expect the White House speechwriters who wrote that july 4th speech, our right now very aware of what happened after that of course the delta variant and the omicron variants very much complicated that picture of sort of mission accomplished or this is behind us. So I would imagine that we won't hear as much optimism and uh you know, if we do, I think the notion that we have made a lot of progress. So more than two thirds of americans have had two doses of vaccine. Um three quarters of americans are at least partially vaccinated. There's more immunity from the fact that omicron spread so widely. Uh, there are reasons to think that we are in a good position at the moment with respect to the pandemic but we know because so much of the world is not vaccinated, that new variants can arise. We also know um that this White House hasn't necessarily been able to look ahead in all instances. So we should have had testing and widespread distribution of tests in place before that omicron peak happened. And so the american public should be skeptical of any sort of mission accomplished language they might here, but I would be um you know, very surprised to actually hear that come out of the president's mouth today. On the other hand, I think there's a reason to think that at least now we're in a moment where we can have a little bit of optimism about things opening back up. But hope that this White House will be really proactive about thinking a few steps ahead about future variants and really focused on distribution of vaccines globally to prevent the rise of those variants as well as the ability to put into place new public health measures as needed and communicate those clearly. Which has also been another area where the biden administration could do better. I would give it up, give it an average grade in terms of communication from the CDC about the basis for the decisions they're making being a vandal trauma. We must leave things there, my friend, a busy and historic night. I'm sure you understand we certainly look forward to having you back here on cheddar news soon to continue our conversation being as boston Globe Editorial page editor also former White House disaster Policy Advisor