The new president has promised to take much more aggressive measures to curb the virus than his predecessor, which began with strict adherence to public health education. He faces steep obstacles, with the virus spreading actively in most states, slow progress in vaccinating and political uncertainty over whether Republicans in Congress will help him achieve economic relief and COVID. pass $ 1.9 billion response package.
“We need to ask average Americans to do their part,” said White House official Jeff Zients. “Fighting the virus requires a coordinated nationwide effort.”
Biden officials say they are hampered by the Trump administration’s lack of cooperation during the transition. They say they do not have a full understanding of their predecessors’ actions regarding the distribution of vaccines. And they have a grievance of complaints from countries that say they are not getting enough vaccine even because they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.
In his inaugural address, Biden acknowledged the urgency of the mission. “We are entering the most difficult and deadly period of the virus,” he said before asking Americans to join him in a moment of silence in memory of the more than 400,000 people in the U.S. who, due to COVID-19 died.
President Joe Biden talks about the coronavirus in the State Einning Room of the White House on Thursday, January 21, 2021 in Washington.
AP Photo / Alex Brandon
Biden’s leading medical adviser on COVID-19, dr. Anthony Fauci, also announced renewed US support for the World Health Organization after the Trump administration withdrew from the global body. Fauci said early Thursday that the US would join the UN Health Agency in bringing vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to people in need, whether in rich or poor countries, and would resume full funding and staff support for WHO.
The US travel mask mask order implemented by Biden applies to airports and aircraft, ships, city buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from abroad must take a negative COVID-19 test before leaving for the US upon arrival and quarantine. Biden has already ordered masks on federal property.
Although airlines, Amtrak and other carriers now need masks, Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, giving passengers the temptation to argue about their rights. This indicates a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s government, under which masks were optional, and Trump aimed to be maskless and to offer large gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, worn properly, reduce the transmission of coronavirus.
Biden is also seeking to expand vaccine testing and availability, with the goal of taking 100 million shots in its first hundred days in office. Zients calls Biden’s goal ‘ambitious and achievable’.
The Democratic president instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin setting up vaccination centers, with the goal of getting 100 up and running within a month. He recommends the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to launch a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies from next month. And he mobilizes the Public Health Service to deploy to help locals with vaccinations.
There is also support for states. Biden orders FEMA to reimburse states for the full cost of using their national guards to set up vaccination centers. This includes the use of supplies and protective equipment as well as personnel.
But some independent experts believe that the government should set a higher standard than 100 million shots. During the flu season, the US can vaccinate about 3 million people a day, said Dr. Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle said. “Given the number of people dying from COVID, we can and should do more – as we can do against seasonal flu,” he said.
Zients said Biden would not follow a plan by the Trump administration to punish vaccinated countries by shifting some of their allocations to more efficient states. “We do not want to set one state against another,” he said.
Biden has set itself the goal of reopening most K-8 schools in its first 100 days, and he urges the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services to provide clear guidance on how to reopen schools safely. States will also be able to tap FEMA’s disaster relief fund to help them reopen schools.
Getting schools and childcare up and running will help reduce the U.S. economy, making it easier for parents to return to their jobs and restaurants to find lunch customers.
But administrative officials stressed that the reopening of schools safely depends on heightened tests.
To sharpen supplies, Biden gives government agencies a green light to use a Cold War law called the Defense Act to regulate production.
“We do not have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” Zients said. “We need the money to really get the testing going, which is so important to reopen schools and businesses.”
That means efforts to reopen the economy depend on how quickly lawmakers act on the $ 1.9 billion package proposed by Biden, which includes separate boards, such as $ 1,400 in direct payments to people, a minimum wage of $ 15 and assistance to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers consider unnecessary to address the medical emergency. The Biden plan estimates that a national vaccination strategy with extensive testing will require $ 160 billion, and he wants another $ 170 billion to help reopen schools and universities. The proposal also calls for major investment in scientific research to detect new strains of the virus, amid concerns that some mutations may spread more easily and may also be more difficult to treat.
As part of its COVID-19 strategy, Biden will advocate the establishment of a COVID-19 Health Equality Task Force to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of government response. Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans have a heavy burden of death and disease due to the virus. Surveys have shown that vaccination among African Americans is high, a problem the government plans to address through an education campaign.
But dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the White House’s leading health adviser to minority communities, said she was not convinced that race should be a factor in vaccination. Differences seem to have more to do with risky work and other living conditions.
“It’s not inherent in race,” she said. “It’s about the exposure.”