Twisted Covid politics scramble Washington's partisan battlefield
CNN
The message from Capitol Hill on Wednesday night was clear. Nearly two years after the pandemic began, with a new coronavirus variant sweeping the US, the search for bipartisan political consensus on the way forward continues, with no end in sight.
In a rebuke of one of President Joe Biden's central efforts to combat Covid-19, a slim Senate majority voted to overturn his vaccine mandate for businesses. Two Democrats from conservative states, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, joined Republicans, led by Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, in seeking to reverse the requirement. The change will not become law, given its uncertain status in the House and the promise of a veto from the White House. But the bipartisan vote, albeit narrow, reflects a nation still at odds about how to finally escape the pandemic, despite clear public health guidance that more widespread vaccine uptake is key.
Biden entered office with a clear promise about the pandemic: to deliver a coherent strategy for beating it back and, as he often said on the 2020 campaign trail, to always "follow the science" in that pursuit.