Inside Biden’s pragmatic approach to coronavirus rules

President Biden has taken a decidedly cautious approach to COVID-19 passports and other rules governing the coronavirus, signaling a determination to not get in front of public opinion.

Biden has avoided stepping into a messy fight over both passports and coronavirus vaccine mandates, choosing instead to let private sector companies, schools and other institutions make the call on whether to require vaccinations.

The move has spurred frustration from some health experts who argue that the administration is missing a critical opportunity to get the virus under control by encouraging vaccine requirements.

“There’s no question that vaccines are critically important, everyone in America who is able to should get a vaccine and that is the only way we are going to achieve herd immunity,” said Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago Health Lab.

“I think there’s a flipside which is, if you get way ahead of public acceptance, that you may on net undermine your public health objectives,” he added.

Case in point: Already, the White House’s announcement that it would go “door-to-door” at the community level to boost vaccinations in the coming weeks spurred conservative blowback, a sign of how precarious the issue can be.