The Covid-19 statistics in our country were truly devastating. We have surpassed 24 million cases and we are closing down nearly 500,000 American lives lost by the pandemic. Even here in New York City, after the overwhelming illness and death we experienced in the spring, hospitals are regaining capacity, staff are being redeployed to care for Covid patients, and military volunteers are being sent to provide support. It feels like we have started 2021 with a big step backwards in this pandemic.
But a new administration took office Wednesday, and that’s a cause for hope. The Biden administration is already showing a new commitment to science-based public health strategies. Last week, Biden announced a new team of scientific advisers and created a cabinet post for the director of the Office of Scientific and Technological Policy.
The incoming director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, has publicly committed to leading science and restoring public confidence in the agency. This is a significant shift from the Trump era, when the White House repeatedly interfered with the CDC’s guidance and data, strongly modified official health recommendations, blocked the publication of guidelines for the reopening of restaurants and other public places, and the risks of reduce the reopening of schools.
After health workers spent years fighting simultaneous battles against Covid-19 and misinformation about the virus – which regularly comes from Trump and other elected officials – the Biden government’s support of science-based public health messages feels like a huge burden of our shoulders.
It is true that the explosion of vaccines was crammed with problems. Federal officials predicted that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of 2020, but the actual numbers reported by the CDC have come a long way from this goal, with only 2.8 million people being vaccinated by the new year. vaccine. While vaccinations are on the rise, with the US averaging about 1 million doses per day over the past week, according to the CNN analysis, it will still take until the spring of 2022 to vaccinate every adult in the US. And as of Friday, nearly 40 million vaccine doses have been distributed, but only about 48%, or 19 million doses, have been administered.
Coupled with delays in administering the vaccine, there are concerns that stocks are running low. Last week, after the Trump administration promised to release a stockpile of vaccines reserved for second doses, it became clear that such a reserve did not exist.
Despite these setbacks, Biden’s government has promised a significant increase in federal aid with the goal of delivering 100 million shots within 100 days, and I’m hopeful that will happen. The administration plans to use the Defense Act to further scale up the materials needed to administer the vaccines.
For countries struggling with the introduction of vaccines, there is also a promise of increased support. The president has announced plans to deploy the National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency to help set up vaccination sites across the country. He pledged to ensure that these federal resources were targeted at black, Latino, and rural communities hardest hit by the pandemic, and called for mass centers and mobile units to be set up to serve areas most difficult to reach.
Finally, I hope that the new government will also restore the global partnerships and goodwill that are so important during this global health crisis. Trump’s decision to abandon the World Health Organization and its threats to obtain money would have had a negative impact on the global fight against diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and measles, and put Americans at a higher risk worldwide. persistence of the pandemic. . Biden has vowed to rejoin the WHO and face this pandemic as part of the global community.
These are still mostly plans and promises that the new government has yet to fulfill. But I’m hopeful. I am hopeful that we will stand together against this pandemic, and I am hopeful that we now have a federal government that will be with us.