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White House’s Public Pandemic Optimism Hides Internal Concern, Sources Say

One official close to the White House told Politico: “‘We don’t know if this is something to be worried about or not’... But you can’t tell the public that.”

Sources close to the White House are expressing concerns about whether the Biden administration’s public optimism about the COVID-19 pandemic is giving a false sense of security ahead of a possible surge. During an NPR interview this week, Ashish Jha, the COVID-19 response coordinator for the White House, said the country is “at a really good moment” and “in reasonably good shape” when it comes to containing the virus. Official rhetoric has also indicated that the country should be able to withstand the threats of any new variants. But Politico reports that privately, some in the White House have acknowledged that officials don’t really know if these reassurances will hold true in the coming weeks. Some officials claim the government shouldn’t speak so confidently about the state of the pandemic due to rising cases in some states and the popularity of at-home testing, which has created a governmental information gap. One official close to the White House told Politico that some officials say, “‘We don’t know if this is something to be worried about or not’... But you can’t tell the public that.”