WASHINGTON (AP) – As the US moves into “what may be the worst and deadliest bout of the virus,” says President Joe Biden comes with a national COVID-19 strategy to ramp up vaccinations and testing, reopen schools and businesses, and increase the use of masks – including the requirement to wear them while traveling.
Biden will also address inequality in hard-hit minority communities as he signs 10 pandemic-related executive orders on Thursday, his second day in office.
“We need to ask the average Americans to do their part,” said Jeff Zients, the White House official who led the national response. ‘Beat the virus requires a coordinated national effort. “
But Biden officials say they are held back by a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition. They say they do not fully understand the actions of their predecessors in vaccine distribution.
They also depend on Congress to provide $ 1.9 trillion for economic aid and COVID-19 response. And they are facing a slew of complaints from states saying they are not getting enough vaccine, even though they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.
Biden recognized the urgency of the mission in his inaugural address. “We are entering what may be the most severe and deadliest period of the virus,” he said before asking Americans to hold a moment of silence with him in memory of the more than 400,000 people in the US who have died. from COVID-19.
Biden’s chief medical advisor on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also announced renewed US support for the World Health Organization after it faced harsh criticism from the Trump administration and made new commitments to tackle the coronavirus and other global health concerns. Fauci said early Thursday on Thursday that the US will join the UN Health Agency’s efforts to bring vaccines, therapies and diagnostics to people in need, both in rich and poor countries, and that it will provide full funding and human resources support for the WHO will resume.
The US travel mask command implemented by Biden will apply to airports and airplanes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transit. Travelers from abroad must submit a negative COVID-19 test before leaving for the US and quarantine upon arrival. Biden has already imposed masks on federal property.
Although airlines, Amtrak and other carriers now require masks, Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little leeway for passengers tempted to argue their rights. It marks a sharp break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s administration, in which masks were optional, and Trump made it a point to go maskless and host large gatherings of like-minded supporters. Science has shown that masks, worn correctly, reduce the transmission of coronavirus.
Biden is also trying to expand the availability of tests and vaccines, targeting 100 million injections in its first 100 days in the office. Zients called Biden’s goal ‘ambitious and achievable’.
The Democratic president has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up vaccination centers with the goal of having 100 operational within a month. He orders the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to initiate a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies starting next month. And he mobilizes the GGD to help places with vaccinations.
Some independent experts say the administration should set itself a higher bar than 100 million shots. During 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. “Given the number of people dying from COVID, we could and should do more, such as what we can do against seasonal flu,” he said.
Zients said Biden will not follow through on a Trump administration plan to penalize states that are lagging behind in vaccination by shifting some of their allocation to more efficient states. “We are not going to put one state against another,” he said.
Biden has a goal of having most K-8 schools reopen in its first 100 days, and he orders the Education and Health and Human Services departments to provide clear guidelines for safely reopening schools.
Getting schools and childcare up and running eases the pressure on the U.S. economy, making it easier for parents to return to work and restaurants to find lunchtime customers.
But government officials stressed that safely reopening schools depends on more testing.
To ramp up supplies, Biden clears government agencies to use a Cold War law called the Defense Production Act to lead production.
“We don’t have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” said Zients. “We need the money to really ramp up testing, which is so important to reopen schools and businesses.”
This means that any attempt to reopen the economy will depend on the speed at which lawmakers act on the $ 1.9 trillion package proposed by Biden, which includes separate planks such as $ 1,400 in direct payments to people, a $ 15 minimum wage and assistance to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers do not consider necessary to address the medical emergency. The Biden plan estimates that a national vaccination strategy with extensive testing will require $ 160 billion, and he wants an additional $ 170 billion to support the reopening of schools and universities.
As part of his COVID-19 strategy, Biden will order the creation of a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to ensure that minorities and disadvantaged communities are not excluded from the government’s response. Blacks, Latinos and Indians have borne a heavy burden of death and disease from the virus. Surveys have shown that vaccine hesitancy is high among African Americans, a problem the government wants to address through an education campaign.
But Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the White House’s chief health adviser on minority communities, said she is not convinced that race should be a factor in vaccination. Differences seem to have more to do with risky jobs and different living conditions.
“It’s not inherent to racing,” she said. “It’s from the exposures.”
There is also support for states in the package. Biden orders FEMA to reimburse states for the full cost of using their National Guard to set up vaccination centers. That includes the use of supplies and protective equipment, as well as personnel. States could also use FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to reopen schools.
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Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Josh Boak contributed to this report.