Sunday shows preview: Supply chain crisis threaten holiday sales; uncertainty over whether US can sustain nationwide downward trend in COVID-19 cases

A supply chain crisis threatening upcoming holiday sales and uncertainty over whether the U.S. will be able to sustain its nationwide downward trend of COVID-19 cases are expected to dominate this Sunday show circuit.

The White House is hastily trying to address supply chain snafus and a shortage of labor as Americans get ready to spend more money over the holiday season. Inflation, which some economists believed would be temporary, has continued to remain persistent as industries are trying to grapple with a surge in demand fueled by the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and federal aid.

The demand is also spurred from a lack of labor, especially within the trucking industry, to be able to transport goods to similar pre-pandemic levels as well as some warehouses and ports that are not currently operating 24/7.

In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acknowledged that they were “longer term issues.”

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Walmart, FedEx and UPS will start operating seven days a week, 24 hours daily in an attempt to mitigate some of those supply chain issues. However, officials have warned that they cannot guarantee that items will be available when customers want them, or that packages will be delivered in a timely manner.

“We can’t overpromise here, and I’m not going to do that from here because there are a lot of issues in the global supply chain,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Buttigieg is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, is scheduled to appear on ABC’s “This Week.” Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, is scheduled to appear on “Fox News Sunday.”

Meanwhile, U.S. officials are hopeful that the country continues to maintain the current nationwide downward trend of COVID-19 cases. President Biden said on Thursday that the country had made “important progress,” adding that in the past six weeks the U.S. had seen a 38 percent decline in hospitalizations and a 47 percent decline in daily infections.

He acknowledged that while the 66 million who are still unvaccinated is “unacceptably high,” it is significantly lower than in July when that figure was at nearly 100 million.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 77 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older have been at least partially vaccinated and 67 percent are fully vaccinated. 

In a nod toward the normalcy of pre-pandemic travel, the White House announced on Friday that starting on Nov. 8, fully vaccinated travelers from other countries would be able to enter the U.S. again. Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci also indicated earlier this month that he encouraged people to spend time with their families over the upcoming holidays.

It remains unclear if this latest delta wave will be the last one for the U.S.; however, health officials have acknowledged that the COVID-19 will likely become an endemic, like the flu, that people learn to live with.

Fauci will appear on ABC’s “This Week” and “Fox News Sunday.”

Below are the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.)

CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Preempted by NFL football.

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Buttigieg; Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.); comedian Jon Stewart.

“Fox News Sunday” — Fauci; Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz.

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.); Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas); Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.); Tim Ward, Texas rancher