In the first place, the White House is drawing up plans to rush vaccines to emerging hotspots in an effort to blunt the virus’ path and protect those at greatest risk, two administration officials told CNN .
While the number of daily cases of coronavirus continues to decline and more than 2 million Americans are now being vaccinated daily, the White House’s Covid-19 response team has prepared for the worst. Officials looked through the data to chart the virus’ trajectory, map out different scenarios and draw up plans for how the federal government would act.
“Everything we do is with the thought in mind that there could be another upsurge,” a senior administration official said, summarizing the administration’s efforts to fight the virus and preparing for a boom.
The focus has increased over the past few weeks as the decline in new day-to-day business has slowed to a worryingly high level. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the UK, will be the dominant strain within a few weeks. There are also concerns about governors and local officials who are prematurely easing health restrictions in a number of states.
Every shot brings the U.S. closer to avoiding another deadly boom, but Biden officials know they’re racing against time.
“I think we need to be very humble with this virus,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC se nr. 2 official, told CNN. “While many indicators are going in the right direction and more and more people are being vaccinated every day, we need to be ready for game maps and deterioration.”
Vaccination of vaccines to hotspots
Just as federal officials built up a test source during the summer and fall and set up ‘boom’ test sites in hotspots across the country, federal officials are preparing to make a similar effort using federal or support vaccination centers. A senior official said one example of this attempt involves vaccinating workers in high-risk institutions such as a meat processing plant in areas where cases are starting to increase.
Officials said the federal government could also use an extensive, federally controlled vaccination pipeline to pharmacies across the country – which would soon rise to more than 20,000.
One official said the administration was also considering administering monoclonal antibody treatments – of which the administration had purchased another 100,000 doses in February – as a prophylaxis.
“We have different instruments than last year,” the official said. “We can not play yesterday’s match against this virus.”
To that end, the White House has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to promote oversight tests and to close gaps in testing, including $ 200 million to promote genomic sequencing to detect the spread of variants. The U.S. rescue plan, signed by Biden on Thursday, is investing another $ 47.8 billion in coronavirus testing. The bill also adds $ 7.66 billion to employ 100,000 public health workers to advance vaccination and contact detection efforts.
Consistent messages
At the forefront of the government’s efforts to prepare for a resurgence – and how its response would differ from the previous one – was the dramatic shift to public messages that made health experts and the president speak with one voice.
That is why the CDC director dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, dr. Anthony Fauci and Biden all warned about the dangers of the variants and the possibility of a new boom.
“A lot can happen. Conditions can change. The scientists have made it clear that things could get worse as new variants of the virus spread,” Biden said in a speech to the country last Thursday. “If we do not remain vigilant and the conditions change, we may have to impose restrictions to get back on track.”
Although federal health officials regularly hedge their public statements to prevent President Donald Trump from being contradicted, public health officials now find them empowered to stick to the data, resulting in one uniform message from the federal government about the threats of the pandemic and the measures to be taken to address the threats.
“We now have more consistent messages about the interventions we know work: masks, social distance measures,” said Schuchat, who also served as deputy CDC director during the Trump administration. “There is a strong commitment at CDC and in this administration to transparent communication – if there is bad news, to share it, if there is good news, to be candid and honest about it – to ensure that we are clear and consistent. can communicate what we think is going on and what we think needs to be done. ”
White House rejects more aggressive strategies
In other areas, the government has refused to change the game completely, and has rejected calls for priority to prioritize more first-dose dual-dose vaccines in Americans’ arms, and to delay the administration of second-dose drugs – such as the United Kingdom did too. Instead, the White House favored the protection of fewer Americans despite concerns that a single dose may be less effective against the more transmissible coronavirus variants.
They also opposed the calls for a more muscular role in the coercive states in speeding up vaccine administration and introducing public health measures, by refusing to commit vaccination or delivery of vaccines to one of them, and considered these steps as counterproductive.
“Involving a heated public argument about this is exactly what sometimes plays into the hands of people who make these decisions,” a senior administration official said. “The president’s general view of the world is not to take the bait, not to increase the rhetoric, not to try to create a war.”
And while public health experts, including the soon-to-be surgeon general of the Biden administration, dr. Vivek Murthy, has called for clearer guidelines and warning systems from the federal government to determine when states and communities should reintroduce coronavirus mitigation measures – such as business closures and capacity constraints – the Biden administration has so far lapsed on that front.
Most states have already established their own criteria for the pandemic at this point, and administration officials said vaccinations and the occurrence of under-reported home tests are hampering efforts to link the case levels to specific mitigation steps.
“We are currently in a rather unusual place because more and more people are being vaccinated,” Schuchat said. “We are looking closely at this moment in the pandemic and what the best statistics are to track down.”
Talk to states
Instead of prescriptions, the White House sought to work more closely with state and local officials. Senior officials of the White House participate several times a week in calls with government officials and local officials, including six regional meetings at the weekly calls between the White House and governors.
Biden officials say they are watching Trump try to put states under pressure to adopt or throw away certain social health measures and that they are trying to avoid putting themselves in a similar position – instead of backing governors’ decision-making calmly influence and prepare the screens. for a potential boom.
“We help them think things through and not paint in a corner,” said a senior administration official. “But believe me, tell a governor that they can not do something they know they have the power to do – I do not think it is the sophisticated step.”
Where the government’s pleas to governors failed – as at the time when Texas and Mississippi governors revoked their mask mandates from their states, the government turned to local officials and business leaders to continue to need masks and introduce other mitigation measures.
But even if the White House wants to prepare governors for a potential fourth resurgence, officials are also considering the possibility that a fourth resurgence will not hamper hospitals or cause as many deaths as previous trainings.
“In 2020, we would say, ‘OK, we’re seeing an increasing number of cases, we know we’re going to see an increasing number of hospitalizations and deaths,'” a senior administration official said. “But today … it’s not a very clear picture.”