Is covid-19 dragging down Joe Biden’s approval rating, or helping it? | No. 169 — November 7, 2021

Voters give the president and his party even poorer marks on other salient issues, such as the economy, public spending, and immigration

The time change and early nightfall this Sunday have reminded me that we will soon be entering our second winter with the threat of covid-19 hanging over America. The winter itself is not so significant in this regard, save for the assumption that spending more time indoors will increase circulation of the coronavirus among those who have yet to be vaccinated for or infected by it. That’s a lot of people, to be sure — roughly one in every six or seven adults, if my back-of-the-envelope math is right.

No; instead, the dropping of leaves and premature dusk have prompted me to recall just how long the pandemic has been at the forefront of American politics. We have been fighting covid-19 for 20 months now — nearly 90 weeks when news of the virus has consumed our collective attention and burdened our national psyche. The virus has caused the premature deaths of some 750,000 Americans, according to official tallies. The true cost may be closer to one million, according to The Economist’s m…