Letter: Biden’s presidential standing

When historians eventually assess the presidency of Joe Biden, I suspect that, compared with all other U.S. presidents, his standing will be somewhere in the middle, among neither the very best or worst.

The issue that has dominated our lives for the last two years of course is the COVID-19 pandemic. When Biden took office, COVID-19 was still a raging wildfire. Hundreds of thousands of Americans had died, and many others who were fortunate to survive have had their lives upended by the long-haul version of COVID-19 or even social isolation. All of us have been negatively impacted. Yes, the measures needed to control COVID-19 have hurt, but most were necessary. And it is possible to go too far, as we have seen lately in Shanghai.

President Biden, upon taking office, was like a fresh breath of air. To his credit, he took COVID-19 seriously through mask wearing. He began his presidency by memorializing the American lives lost to COVID-19. President Biden’s soft, empathetic voice of caring was a refreshing contrast from before. The key to controlling the contagion, in addition to masks, has been vaccination. If Biden stumbled at all with his response to COVID-19, it was in failing to institute a counterfeit-proof verifiable vaccination passport, to allow responsible Americans full re-entry to activities. And the CDC should have provided clear guidance on legitimate medical exemptions to vaccination.

On other challenges beyond COVID-19, historians will find that Biden has done some things right, some things not so well.

Stan Perrin

Crystal Lake