The actions of DeSantis and several other Republican governors (but not all, as Biden pointed out) directly conflict with the advice of public health experts. And these governors are often echoing Trump. By calling attention to the problem, Biden has a chance to help people understand that the likely coming outbreaks in many states aren’t inevitable. They will be the result of politicians not taking public safety seriously.

The most effective messages will often be ones in which Biden seems to be ahead of the curve. And to make those messages resonate, he will need to repeat himself.

2. Name a shadow cabinet. Several writers and political advisers, including some close to Biden, have made a version of this argument. As The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman writes:

In Britain, the opposition party maintains a “shadow” cabinet, a group of spokespeople assigned the same policy areas as the ministries of the government, to offer the opposition’s view on whatever issue is being discussed at a given moment. While Biden probably wouldn’t want to assign specific Cabinet positions now, he could utilize both his own aides and people in the broader Democratic world to give the public a picture of what government under President Biden would be up to — and provide a contrast with the chaos, corruption, and incompetence that characterizes the Trump administration.

An early example: The presentation on Saturday from Ron Klain, the Obama administration’s Ebola czar and Biden’s former chief of staff. “It not only offered a clear critique of the administration’s failures, it showed that the people around Biden … are competent, informed, and experienced,” Waldman wrote. To make this work, Biden would need to choose a diverse group of advisers who could speak as a proxy for him, including some who excite the progressive wing of the party.

3. Ignore the criticism and don’t try to grab the spotlight. When Ronald Reagan was running for president during the Iran hostage crisis, he deliberately avoided becoming Jimmy Carter’s harshest critic, as Monica Prasad of Northwestern University has noted. When Barack Obama was running for president during the financial crisis, he was careful about how he talked about George W. Bush’s response. Both Reagan and Obama understood the importance of not looking too political — and instead looking presidential — during a national crisis.

“This is a dangerous moment for Joe Biden,” Prasad wrote in Politico. Perhaps the best thing Biden could do is avoid saying something that would make him appear petty or open himself up to criticism, she added: “Biden similarly needs to let the president lead. If Trump is the ineffective and irresponsible caricature that his opponents think he is, events will show it soon enough.”