President-elect Joe Biden says he’s going to ask Americans to cover their faces in public for the first 100 days of his presidency. Urging people to wear masks is entirely reasonable. It’s exactly what people should do to minimize coronavirus infections as vaccination proceeds. Yet after almost a year with no such common-sense guidance from the White House, Biden’s modest request seems almost shocking — a sad commentary on the lack of leadership to this point.
Guiding America toward prudence in coping with COVID-19 is going to be no less important as vaccines become more widely available.
People need clear information and guidance about the vaccines’ safety and potential side effects, so that most people are willing to get the shots. If fewer than four out of five are vaccinated, it may not be enough to stem the coronavirus’s spread. Encouragingly, resistance to COVID-19 vaccines has been waning since news of their extraordinary effectiveness first broke. The share of Americans who say they would accept a vaccine that was free and certified as safe has risen to 71%, from 63% in September, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey.