The need for speed after a year of COVID-19 is being addressed by President Joseph R. Biden, who on his first full day in office, released a 200-page “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness,” which is posted at whitehouse.gov.
Of the worst public health crisis in a century, the plan states, “Just one year later, the United States has experienced over 24 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and over 400,000 COVID-19 deaths. America has just 4% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s COVID-19 cases and 20% of all COVID-19 deaths.”
Biden said in his news conference on Jan. 21 that the darkest days of the pandemic are still ahead, with record numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The Biden plan is nationalized, with several goals, including restoring trust at home and leadership abroad; a comprehensive vaccination campaign, and expanding mask wearing, COVID-19 testing, the health care workforce and public health standards.
The plan also focuses on providing resources to safely reopen schools, businesses and travel, while protecting workers; equity; and preparedness for future health threats.
As he outlined the plan, the president was accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris and chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Biden said the plan was developed with input from Fauci and other experts and advisers. The White House is establishing a COVID-19 Response Office to coordinate the federal response to the pandemic. Decision-making in Biden-Harris unified plan is “driven by science and equity.”
In addition to his campaign for 100 million coronavirus vaccine shots in 100 days, in order to speed up vaccinations for the public, Biden’s plan states, “The president has developed a plan for expanding vaccine manufacturing and purchasing COVID-19 vaccine doses for the U.S. population by fully leveraging contract authorities, including the Defense Production Act; deploying onsite support to monitor contract manufacturing operations; and purchasing additional FDA-authorized vaccines to deliver as quickly as possible,” and open up “as many venues as needed” as vaccination sites.
To monitor vaccine safety and effectiveness, “scientists are in charge of all decisions related to vaccine safety and efficacy. The FDA will also continue to honor its commitment to make relevant data on vaccine safety and efficacy publicly available and to provide opportunities for public, non-governmental expert input. Through expanded and existing systems, the CDC and FDA will ensure ongoing, real-time safety monitoring.
“Through it all, the administration will communicate clearly with the American public to continue to build trust around the vaccine and its benefits for individuals, their families and communities.”
Executive orders
Among a series of executive orders Biden signed on Jan. 21, mask-wearing is now required in all federal buildings, airplanes, trains and certain other forms of public transportation in the United States. Passengers flying into the U.S. will need a negative COVID-19 test result “prior to departure and quarantine on arrival, consistent with CDC guidelines.”
Biden has also called on governors, public health officials, mayors, business leaders, and others to implement mask wearing, physical distancing, and other CDC public measures to control the virus.
An executive order establishes a COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board to oversee implementation of a “clear, unified approach to testing.” There are plans to expand “rapid testing supply and double test supplies and increase testing capacity” by increasing “onshore test manufacturing, fill testing supply shortfalls, enhance laboratory capacity to conduct testing over the short- and long-term, and expand surveillance for hotspots and variants.”
The plan creates a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps to provide support for community health workers and communities most at-risk,” and also “provide technical support for testing, contact tracing, and other urgent public health workforce needs to better prepare for public health crises.”
By invoking the Defense Production Act, Biden’s plan by executive order directs agencies to fill supply shortfalls using all available legal authorities to accelerate manufacturing, delivery, and administration to meet shortfalls in 12 categories of critical supplies, including “all the necessary equipment and material to accelerate the manufacture, delivery, and administration of COVID-19 vaccine.”
To support the safe reopening of schools, Biden’s plan calls on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide guidance on safe reopening using best practices learned from across the country. His plan also “restores full reimbursement for eligible costs necessary to support safe school reopening through the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.”
Biden also calls on Congress to provide “at least $130 billion in dedicated funding to schools, $350 billion in flexible state and local relief funds that will help districts avoid lay-offs and close budget gaps, and additional resources so that schools can safely reopen, including funds to implement screening testing.”
Child care aid
For child care providers, Biden is asking Congress to provide “$25 billion in emergency stabilization to support hard-hit child care providers through the pandemic,” and for families who depend on child care, “$15 billion to help families struggling to afford child care.”
Biden wants Congress to provide paid leave to workers who go into COVID-19 quarantine and isolation.
“The recent coronavirus supplemental package passed by Congress did not extend the emergency paid leave mandate, leaving our country far less prepared to respond to the pandemic. President Biden has called upon Congress to put the requirement back in place and eliminate exemptions so that more workers are covered and expand emergency paid sick and family and medical leave benefits to over 14 weeks.”
To strengthen global cooperation, the U.S. is rejoining the World Health Organization and is supporting the “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator,” joining the “COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility”, and seeks to strengthen other existing multilateral initiatives, such as “the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.”
Read the complete COVID-19 national plan at whitehouse.gov.
The plan includes providing resources to safely reopen schools, businesses and travel, while protecting workers; equity; and preparedness for future health threats.