Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max KRISTIN URQUIZA ’s father died of Covid-19 in Arizona in the summer of 2020. Upon his passing, she wrote an obituary in The Arizona Republic that blamed politicians who downplayed the severity of the virus. That obituary went viral and more than a month later Urquiza delivered a scathing speech at JOE BIDEN’s virtual nominating convention, in which she placed the blame for her father’s death squarely on then-president DONALD TRUMP. One year into President Biden’s first term, however, Urquiza says it’s time for the new president to be held accountable for missteps. “The response that we've gotten from the Biden administration, really, unfortunately falls short of what we were promised on the campaign trail,” said Urquiza. While 87 percent of U.S. adults have now gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, she said that the “vaccine-alone strategy that was pushed sort of in the beginning of the year caught a lot of us by surprise because it still went against the kind of growing chorus of public health recommendations in light of the oncoming Delta variant in the summertime.” The White House maintains that vaccines are the best tool to combat Covid-19. In an interview with West Wing Playbook, Urquiza prefaced her critiques of Biden with an acknowledgement of the situation he inherited. She also argued that his team had let him down, taking aim at Biden’s pandemic response coordinator, JEFF ZIENTS, in particular. “I don't think that Zients is the guy for the job," she said. Instead, she advised that a "public health practitioner” with experience in equity is better suited for the post. She recommended someone like Dr. ONI BLACKSTOCK, a primary care and HIV physician who previously served as an assistant commissioner for the New York City Department of Health. Urquiza attributed some of Biden’s struggles to a right-wing media ecosystem that continues to lie about vaccines and masks, and Republicans lawmakers that actively discourage — and at times incentivize — their followers from getting vaccinated. Data from Kaiser Health News reveals that the gap between populations in Biden-voting counties that are fully vaccinated (65 percent) and populations in Trump-voting counties that are fully vaccinated (52 percent) continues to grow. Urquiza’s father was one of those Trump voters. As she put it in her DNC speech, he trusted the Republican president, “and for that he paid with his life.” “There's no question in my mind that the Biden administration was left with a terrible situation to take this crisis on with,” said Urquiza, who attended the first 2020 presidential debate as a guest of Biden’s campaign. Now a co-founder of the non-profit Marked by Covid, Urquiza trains those directly impacted by the virus to become advocates, and shares stories of those who’ve lost family to the virus, or have had it themselves, including those suffering from so-called “long Covid,” where the physical effects of the virus linger for months or even years. The White House has ramped up its efforts to contain the pandemic in response to the latest surge, launching new initiatives to give out free Covid tests, distribute high-quality medical masks and encourage more people to get booster shots. But to Urquiza, it’s not enough. In our 40-minute conversation, she listed a handful of changes she has yet to see, including more stockpiling of tests and masks and a public education campaign to go with it. She also argued that a new Covid stimulus package is “long overdue” and urged the White House to hold listening sessions so that Biden, Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, or first lady JILL BIDEN could hear from those directly impacted by the virus. Urquiza has pressed the administration since last summer for the president to host these types of conversations. Instead, the White House set up a meeting for her with senior adviser CEDRIC RICHMOND last August. “But it was short [and] very limited on the number of people that we could bring,” she said. “It felt like we were shoehorned in.” In that meeting, Urquiza, who has worked with Republicans and Democrats to create the first permanent national Covid memorial in New Jersey, tried to convey to Richmond that she has “seen memorialization and grief [be] an incredibly powerful tool for catalyzing unity.” On Tuesday, she sent a follow-up request to the White House. If allowed, she hopes to bring a caretaker who lost a partner to coronavirus and is now raising a grieving child alone and an individual who lost a loved one to Covid-19 but is also a “long-Covid patient.” A White House official said they did their best to make a meeting happen as the Delta variant raged and that staff took a lot of helpful advice away from the meeting. The official added that Biden is working daily to save lives, get the public tools to protect itself, and prioritizing equity in his response. The official pointed to essentially even vaccination rates among Black, Hispanic and white adults as well as investments in lifesaving treatments, high-quality masks, and resources to keep schools open. “We have been able to do these things by meeting with public health officials, experts, survivors, and other advocates throughout the country — including Ms. Urquiza — both in the White House and through the Presidential COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force,” the official said. “Ms. Urquiza has channeled her loss into purpose and action and the country is stronger because of her advocacy for the countless Americans [who] have been touched by a COVID-19 death.” Urquiza was encouraged by Biden’s comment during his recent press conference that he planned to travel more to engage people and experts outside of the nation’s capital this year. “The thing that I've been optimistic about though, is the last couple of months, in that the Biden administration has responded to the backlash around tests and masks,” she said. But she argued that without more, the Covid-era backlash that engulfed Trump would engulf Biden too. “I've been saying for quite some time now that the people that have lost loved ones, the people who are still struggling from Covid, who have long Covid or have other sort of health issues as a response of being really sick in the hospital for a long time — it's a really large constituency base that is very diverse, and enormous,” she said. “And I don't see this particular base being blindly loyal to the Democrats just because they've done more. In November, if more isn't done it's not that they'll vote for Republicans. They just won't show up.” SEND YOUR HOT TAKE — We want to incorporate more of your feedback. Is there something we missed in today’s edition? Do you have a tip to share or a thought on our coverage? Send us an email or text and we will try to include your thoughts in the next day’s edition. 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