A liberal policy agenda may be sidelined by the 2020 campaigns as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic and elections gravitate toward the inevitable public health fallout and economic recovery effort.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, last weekend adopted proposals from Bernie Sanders on free public university and college tuition and Elizabeth Warren on bankruptcy law reform. The move was interpreted as a win for more liberal Democrats hoping to shape the party's platform heading into the summer convention and November elections.

But less than a week later, reports of COVID-19 have skyrocketed around the United States and pockets of the country have been ordered to stay home. Now, the nation's attention is fixated on how to stop the spread of the novel respiratory illness and rebuild the country it leaves behind once the contagion subsides.

When she was running, liberal firebrand Warren, a Massachusetts senator, pitched herself as the unity candidate who could bridge the divide between center-left Biden and socialist Sanders. The need for her influence, however, has diminished amid the public health crisis.

Bill Dauster, former deputy chief of staff for then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Warren "does have an important role to play in helping to bring out progressives to support the Democratic nominee." Yet Dauster said Sanders himself would be critical in mobilizing his backers behind Biden.

"For a number of reasons, I do expect that Sen. Sanders's supporters will likely find it easier to support Vice President Biden than Secretary Clinton," he told the Washington Examiner of Sanders's 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

For Christopher Hahn, Aggressive Progressive podcast host and former Democratic consultant, the "Bernie or Bust" group should reassess its stance after the disease's outbreak, given Biden had "already won the issue primary" since he's dominating the race's delegate count.

"The election, frankly, is not going to be about the minor divisions between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. There's going be a very singular issue that's going to drive the campaigns, and these movements are going to take a backseat to that," he said.

Hahn agreed that Sanders should use whatever political capital he has to mold the party's policies. But he described the Vermont senator's delay in dropping out as "the height of irresponsibility" because he can't win and it's likely to become extremely difficult for Americans to vote in the coming months if they want to avoid crowds, as suggested by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The campaign landscape is going to become unrecognizable to seasoned operatives and commentators, Hahn said.

"I don't think we're going to see large rallies. I don't think we're going to have opportunities for hecklers. I think it's going to be smaller events, much more controlled, much more virtual," he said. "Let's face it, they are the very small minority of people that show up and heckle, and they get a lot more attention than they deserve."

As of this week's primaries, Biden has 1,186 pledged delegates to Sanders's 885, with 1,991 required for the nomination outright. The next contests won't be held in Alaska, Hawaii, and Wyoming until April 28, after several states announced they were pushing back their elections.