The statistics of Covid-19 in our country are truly devastating. We have crossed 24 million cases and we are approaching nearly 500,000 American lives lost in the pandemic. Even here in New York City, after the overwhelming illness and death we experienced in the spring, hospitals are almost full again, staff are being redeployed to care for Covid patients, and military volunteers are being sent to provide support. It feels like we started 2021 by taking a huge step back in this pandemic.
But a new government took office on Wednesday, which is hopeful. The Biden administration is already showing a renewed commitment to science-based public health strategies. Last week, Biden announced a new team of scientific advisers and created a cabinet position for the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, has publicly pledged to be at the forefront of science and to restore public confidence in the agency. This marks a major shift from the Trump era, when the White House repeatedly interfered with the CDC’s guidelines and data, heavily redacted official health recommendations, blocked the publication of guidelines for reopening restaurants and other public places, and the downplayed risks of reopening schools.
After health workers have battled Covid-19 and misinformation about the virus over the past year – which often came from Trump and other elected officials – the Biden administration’s support for evidence-based public health reports feels like a tremendous burden. us is taken away. shoulders.
It is true that the introduction of the vaccine has been problematic. Federal officials predicted that 20 million Americans would have been vaccinated by the end of 2020, but the actual numbers reported by the CDC fell far short of this goal: only 2.8 million people who received a vaccine by the new year. As vaccinations increase, averaging about 1 million doses per day in the US in the past week, it would take until spring 2022 to vaccinate every adult in the US at this rate, according to an analysis by CNN. And as of Friday, nearly 40 million vaccine doses had been distributed, but only about 48%, or 19 million doses, had been administered.
In addition to delays in administering the vaccine, there are concerns that supplies are running out. Last week, after the Trump administration promised to release a stockpile of vaccines reserved for second doses, it became clear that no such reserve existed.
Despite these setbacks, Biden’s government has vowed a substantial increase in federal aid with the goal of managing 100 million shots in 100 days, and I am hopeful that this will happen. The administration plans to use the Defense Production Act to further scale up production of the materials needed to administer the vaccines.
For states struggling to roll out vaccines, there is also promise of more support. The president has announced plans to deploy the National Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up vaccination sites across the country. He’s committed to ensuring that these federal funds are spent on black, Latino and rural communities hardest hit by the pandemic, and has called for massive vaccination centers and mobile units to be set up to serve the hardest-to-reach areas.
Finally, I am hopeful that the new government will also restore the global partnerships and goodwill that are so crucial during this global health crisis. Trump’s decision to leave the World Health Organization and his threats to secure funding would have negatively impacted the global fight against diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and measles, and put Americans at higher risk for it. global survival of the pandemic. . Biden has pledged to rejoin the WHO and face this pandemic as part of the global community.
These are still mainly plans and promises that the new government has yet to implement. But I am hopeful. I am hopeful that we will act together against this pandemic, and I hope we now have a federal government that will support us.