Take As Directed

The Washington Post's Dan Diamond returns for Episode #131. Public attitudes towards Covid-19 have changed, and the pandemic has become a lower political priority. "It's been a steady saga of lack of action compounded by different political priorities swamping Covid." Midterms are coming up, and candidates want to show that there are other issues they are attentive to: inflation and crime. Republicans argue that there are a lot of unused emergency funds, and there needs to be better rigor and transparency in their use. But money is urgently needed to go to reliable partners. Anecdotally, it feels like Washington, DC is experiencing a wave, but it isn't reflected in the data–people aren't reporting their results, so we've lost some awareness of our surroundings. There are disincentives for politicians to speak about the pandemic across partisan lines, and we've relaxed all of our mechanisms in place to help us stay vigilant. This has been a long pandemic, and Americans are exhausted. Dr. Ashish Jha inherits a