Biden’s Former Health Advisers Seek Covid-19 ‘New Normal’ Strategy
Six health experts who gained major prominence and were advisers in Biden’s transition team have sought an entirely new domestic strategy to fight Covid-19 and its newest variant, Omicron. The day Biden was formally made the US president, the board of experts guiding him on health issues was officially wound up. Despite that, the members continue to meet on Zoom with their discussions often bordering on frustration with how Mr. Biden has been responding to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Six of the former advisers finally decided to take their apprehensions to the public with a somewhat polite critique of how Biden has been handling the pandemic. The advisers seek Biden’s attention and they want to be heard. They have released three opinion articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association where they have demanded that Biden formulate a new and effective strategy geared to face the “new normal” of learning to live with the virus indefinitely.
Why The Health Experts Took This Initiative? The Apprehensions Behind The Move
The groups of former advisers who have authored the articles are renowned figures in the field of American medicine. They have also held important government positions like Dr. Luciana Borio, former acting chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. David Michaels, former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration who’s now at the School of Health of George Washington University. The effort was made after the initiative made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, oncologist, medical ethicist, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
As it has been with the White House through the ages, loyalty has always been valued. President Biden has been no different and like his predecessors, he has preferred to keep differences within the house. Considering that, publishing the articles was an unusual step to take. The experts, the authors of the articles say that they wrote them largely because talking to the White House officials directly didn’t elicit the expected response.
Dr. Borio feels that the Biden administration seems eager to fight Covid-19 with its focus on what has happened in the past. The current situation isn’t being given due attention and the administration doesn’t seem to be prepared to handle what lies ahead. While the authors did share the article with the White House officials before publishing them, it wasn’t quite clear if the administration would take any of the suggestions seriously and adopt them.
Response from the White House
President Biden’s top medical adviser for the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci has declined to make any comments on the articles. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary came up with a terse response saying that she hadn’t read the articles. She was even dismissive after being probed about whether the Biden administration was slowly realizing that Covid-19 is here to stay. Notwithstanding Psaki’s response, from several media accounts, it can be inferred that Biden’s administration was gradually coming to terms with that possibility.
President Biden has stressed that he desires to keep schools and businesses open despite the soaring cases, which points at a recalibration of the strategy. The change in strategy has been underlined by the recent decision taken by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which now requires those with Covid-19 to isolate themselves for just five days instead of the ten days fixed earlier.
Ms, Psaki iterates that the President strongly desires “to defeat the virus.” She goes on to say that the President was now focusing on saving as many lives as possible. While formulating the strategy to face the “new normal,” Dr. Emanuel and two of his co-authors, University of Minnesota epidemiologist Michael T. Osterholm and an infectious disease expert at New York University, Dr. Celine Gounder observed that while President Biden had claimed in July that we had “gained the upper hand against the virus,” it certainly wasn’t so.
What Lies Ahead For America?
The Omicron variant has triggered a massive surge in Corona cases. The advisers have suggested that the US avoid remaining in a state of emergency perpetually. They mention that the first step to take is recognizing that the Covid-19 virus is a virus circulating in the US among several other respiratory viruses. It’s this new recognition that should influence policy making so that there’s a well-thought-out strategy in place to deal with all the viruses simultaneously.
The US should also prepare itself better to deal with new outbreaks from newer variants that seem inevitable. It’s suggested that new goals be laid out and specific benchmarks are set mentioning the number of hospitalizations and respiratory virus deaths including those caused by influenza and Covid-19 that should warrant an emergency response and other steps.
The Suggested Future Course Of Action
The health experts urge the administration to take a longer view of things. They raise questions about the current policies and stances adopted by President Biden—especially in response to issues that have raised a political storm in the US. A call has been made for more aggressive vaccination despite the fierce opposition from Republicans.
They say that the US needs a digital verification system for the vaccination drive. Arrangements should be made for vaccine passports, which Biden has resisted in the face of sharp reactions from the Republicans.
Conclusion
The United States should gear up to deal with the new surge in cases. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the pandemic is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it. As such, the Biden administration’s policies should be in tune with the “new normal”- continuing to live with Covid-19. What’s worrying is that the US has seen resistance to initiatives planned by the Biden administration from the Republicans.
It has put a spanner on the administration’s planned initiatives to deal with the pandemic more efficiently, like faster vaccination. The Biden administration’s response has largely been what can be termed ‘knee-jerk reaction.’ It should now develop a vision that looks into the future and prepares the United States to take on Covid-19 and its new variants.
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