>> Are you suggesting that stricter Covid regulations imposed by the federal government could have curtailed some of the struggles the health care providers are experiencing now?

Yes, I do. I live in the Netherlands and we have the 2020-ish lockdown right now, basically nothing except of groceries and pharmacies is open. And that seems to be a good strategy - https://nltimes.nl/2022/01/07/dutch-covid-hospitalizations-n... Once we get through the Omicron wave, we will smoothly reopen.

The US Federal Government is extremely limited in its ability to impose lockdowns or other NPIs on the states, much in the same way that in 2020, Trump could not force them to be open. The US system of government grants these rights to the individual states, most of which have removed the restrictions and/or delegated the decisions to cities and counties.

The limited amount of restrictions imposed by the Fed are already being challenged and overturned in courts.

Biden could declare national emergency using Public Health Service Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Service_Act

Dems still have slim majority in the house, so they could authorize Biden to do that.

I don't think that the US population is willing to go through another lock down, both vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

Last time the financial cost was immense, and we have yet to recover.