On March 12, in his first primetime address as President, Joseph Biden said he would order states to make all adults eligible for vaccinations by May 1:

“If we do this together, by July 4, there is a good chance you, your family and friends can get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

“After a long, hard year, that will make this Independence Day truly special—where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”

For all of his sincerity, Biden has made three major—and possibly fatal—mistakes in his effort to protect his fellow Americans from COVID-19.

COVID-19 virus

Mistake #1: Setting a July 4 date

Admittedly, Biden hedged his prediction: “”If we do this together, by July 4, there is a good chance….” 

Still, there are simply too many variables to any disease or pestilence to guarantee its extinction by a specific date. 

(A friend of mine, whose apartment was infested with bedbugs, was stunned when an exterminator promised: “I’ll have them gone in three visits or I’ll change my name.” The exterminator was gone before the bedbugs were.)

But to millions of simplistic, miracle-demanding Americans, Biden’s “July 4, 2021” statement became the date by which they fully expected to see COVID-19 totally eliminated—and the country returned to its state before the plague arrived.

Joseph Biden

So fast-forward to November, 2021, with medical experts predicting a rise in COVID-19 cases.

There are two reasons for this:

First, due to the cold and holidays, more people will be spending more time indoors with friends and relatives in their homes, and with strangers in large shopping centers.

Second, many Americans have never gotten vaccinated. Or they got only the first shot (of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine) and didn’t bother to get a second. Or they got vaccinated—but neglected to get a booster shot.

So now all those millions of simplistic, science-denying Americans will feel: “Biden lied to me!”

Mistake #2: Refusing to blame the Stormtrumpers

Throughout 2020, President Donald Trump brutally attacked social distancing, wearing face masks and the medical professionals who advocated both.

To demonstrate their loyalty, his millions of Right-wing followers threw caution—and often their own lives—to the COVID-infected winds. 

Donald Trump

Even after three COVID-19 vaccines have been developed, millions of Right-wingers refuse to get vaccinated. Although they refuse women the right to abortion, they insist “It’s my body!” when it came to mandatory vaccinations.

As a result, in states won by Trump in the 2020 Presidential election, hospitals surge with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients—and graveyards fill with them.

Every hospital bed taken by an unvaccinated Stormtrumper is a bed denied to a legitimate medical patient—such as a victim of stroke, heart attack, accident or crime. 

Yet President Biden has refused to blame those men and women who are directly responsible for this outrage.

Doing so would not only be accurate—it would allow Biden to place blame on his sworn political enemies and thus enhance his own popularity: “We would have achieved freedom from COVID-19—but these people have sabotaged their country’s safety out of sheer selfishness and arrogance!”

Trump viciously attacked the nation’s free press as “the enemy of the American people.” But Biden and his fellow Democrats refuse to blame those most responsible for the nation’s continuing COVID-19 epidemic.

Mistake #3: Failing to put Stormtrumpers’ deaths in perspective

Since the overwhelming numbers of COVID-19 victims are now unvaccinated Stormtrumpers, it’s necessary to view these in a new perspective. 

And Biden could—and should—offer that perspective.  For example:

“My fellow Americans, tonight I can report to you that the United States is safer today than it has been since 2015. Tens of thousands of men and women, determined to overturn our most basic freedoms, are no longer able to do so. 

“They refused to get vaccinated or even wear masks. By denying science and showing utter disregard for their own health and that of their fellow citizens, they chose a path that led directly to their own demise.

“They brought on their own deaths. There is no way to protect people who, through sheer arrogance and/or ignorance, court suicide.

“Moreover, these were people who swore allegiance to a lifelong criminal and would-be dictator who illegally conspired to overturn the verdict of a legitimate election.

“His efforts culminated in an attempted coup against Congressional members counting the electoral votes of the 2020 election.

“Despite this, millions of Fascistic Americans still lust to support their would-be Fuhrer in 2024. Should he once again enter the White House, it’s a certainty he will remain there—as he has so often ‘joked’—as ‘President-for-Life.’ 

“Just as we don’t grieve for those who supported the foreign terrorism of Osama bin Laden, there is no reason to grieve for those who supported the domestic terrorism of Donald Trump.”

Thus, the self-inflicted removal of Trump supporters can be accurately presented as a victory for democracy.