With masks and distancing, Biden’s speech sent the wrong message about the power of our vaccines

With his speech before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, President Biden missed his biggest opportunity to reduce vaccine hesitancy.

The problem wasn’t the content of his speech — it was the setting.

The 200 attendees entered the 1,600-person-capacity House chamber spaced apart and wearing masks. Some appeared to be double-masked. They were asked not to make physical contact, though some still fist-bumped or shook hands. There were markers indicating which seats could be occupied, with numerous empty spaces in between. As the president spoke, the vice president and speaker of the House sat behind him, both clad in masks.

If I didn’t know better, I would have thought this was six months ago, before Americans had access to safe, highly effective vaccines.

Then, all the precautions taken would have been the appropriate response to a surging pandemic, because the only tools we had to prevent the spread of covid-19 were masking, physical distancing and testing. But we’re in a totally different place now. Thanks to the work of scientists around the world, there are vaccines that are extraordinarily effective in preventing severe illness and reducing the spread of the virus. Thanks to the Biden administration’s leadership, every American 16 and older can sign up to receive one of these incredible vaccines.