WASHINGTON (AP) – Immersed in the deadliest coronavirus wave and facing worrying new mutations, President Joe Biden will launch its national strategy COVID-19 to increase vaccination and testing, reopen schools and businesses and increase the use of masks – including the requirement that Americans wear masks for travel.
Biden will also address inequalities in the hard-hit minority communities by signing 10 executive pandemic-related decrees on Thursday. These orders are a first step, and specific details of many management actions are still being explained.
The new president promised to take far more aggressive measures to contain the virus than its predecessor, starting with strict adherence to public health guidelines. He faces steep obstacles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress in vaccine release and political uncertainty about whether Republicans in Congress will help him pass a $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package and COVID answer.
“We need to ask ordinary Americans to do their part,” said Jeff Zients, the White House official who is directing the national response. “Defeating the virus requires a coordinated national effort. “
Biden officials say they were hurt by the Trump administration’s lack of cooperation during the transition. They say they do not have a complete understanding of the actions of their predecessors in the distribution of vaccines. And they face a litany of complaints from states that say they are not getting enough vaccine, even when they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.
Biden acknowledged the urgency of the mission in his inaugural speech. “We are entering what may well be 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 who died in the United States. of COVID-19.
Biden’s leading medical advisor at COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also announced renewed US support for the World Health Organization after the Trump administration left the global body. Fauci said on Thursday that the United States will join the UN health agency’s efforts to bring vaccines, therapies and diagnostics to people in need, whether in rich or poor countries, and will resume full funding and staff support for the WHO.
The US travel mask order being implemented by Biden will apply to airports and airplanes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transport. Foreign travelers must present a negative COVID-19 test before leaving for the USA and quarantine on arrival. Biden has already determined masks on federal properties.
Although airlines, Amtrak and other transportation providers now demand masks, Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little room for maneuver for passengers tempted to discuss their rights. This marks a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s administration, under which masks were optional, and Trump made a point of going without a mask and hosting large gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, used correctly, reduce the transmission of coronavirus.
Biden also seeks to expand the availability of tests and vaccines, with a target of 100 million injections in his first 100 days in office. Zients called Biden’s goal “ambitious and achievable”.
The Democratic president ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to start installing vaccination posts, with the goal of having 100 up and running in one month. He is ordering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to start a program to make vaccines available in local pharmacies starting next month. And he is mobilizing the Public Health Service to set up to help localities with vaccination.
States are also supported. Biden is ordering FEMA to reimburse states for the full cost of using their National Guards to establish vaccination centers. This includes the use of protective supplies and equipment, as well as personnel.
But some independent experts say the government should set a higher standard for itself than 100 million doses. During the flu season, the United States can vaccinate about 3 million people a day, said Dr. Christopher Murray, of the Seattle Metrics and Health Assessment Institute. “Given the number of people dying from COVID, we can and must do more – like what we can do with seasonal flu,” he said.
Zients said Biden will not follow through on Trump’s administration plan to penalize states with delayed vaccinations by shifting part of their allocation to more efficient states. “We don’t want to pit one state against another,” he said.
Biden has set a goal of reopening most K-8 schools in their first 100 days, and he is ordering the departments of Education and Health and Human Services to provide clear guidelines for reopening schools safely. States could also use the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund to help them reopen schools.
Keeping schools and daycare centers up and running will help ease the pressure on the United States economy, making it easier for parents to return to their jobs and restaurants to find customers for lunch.
But government officials emphasized that reopening schools safely depends on further testing.
To increase supplies, Biden is giving government agencies the green light to use a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to direct manufacturing.
“We don’t have enough testing capacity in this country,” said Zients. “We need money to really speed up testing, which is so important for reopening schools and businesses.”
This means that efforts to reopen the economy will depend on how quickly lawmakers will act on Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion package, which includes separate boards, such as $ 1,400 in direct payments to people, a minimum wage of US $ 15 and aid to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers consider unnecessary to address the medical emergency. Biden’s plan estimates that a national expanded testing vaccination strategy requires $ 160 billion, and he wants another $ 170 billion to help reopen schools and universities. The proposal also calls for a major investment in scientific research to screen for new strains of the virus, amid concerns that some mutations may spread more easily and also be more difficult to treat.
As part of its COVID-19 strategy, Biden will order the establishment of a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of the government’s response. Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans carried a heavy burden of deaths and illnesses caused by the virus. Research has shown that vaccine hesitation is high among African Americans, a problem that the government plans to solve through an educational campaign.
But Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the White House’s primary health advisor for minority communities, said she is not convinced that race should be a factor in vaccination. The disparities seem to have more to do with risky jobs and other circumstances in life.
“It is not inherent in the race,” she said. “It’s from the exhibitions.”
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Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Josh Boak contributed to this report.