{"id":1235,"date":"2021-12-22T16:22:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T21:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/?p=1235"},"modified":"2022-01-09T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T21:29:31","slug":"the-daily-beast-op-ed-nearly-2-years-and-more-than-800k-deaths-later-biden-is-playing-catch-up-with-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/the-daily-beast-op-ed-nearly-2-years-and-more-than-800k-deaths-later-biden-is-playing-catch-up-with-the-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Beast Op-Ed: Nearly 2 Years and More Than 800K Deaths Later, Biden is Playing Catch Up With the Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"
BP2C Executive Director Dr. Scott C. Ratzan, Lawrence O. Gostin and Kenneth H. Rabin wrote an Opinion in The Daily Beast on December 22, 2021 titled, “Nearly Two Years and More Than 800,000 Deaths Later, Biden is Playing Catch Up With the Coronavirus,” with a byline “Here are four things, past what he announced today, that the president could do right now to finally get America up to speed.” The full article is available here on the Daily Beast websit<\/a>e and is copied below.<\/h5>\n

President Biden today warned the nation of a dark winter<\/a>, fueled by the Omicron variant that is now dominant in America. He will expand testing sites, distribute free at-home tests, and deploy federal resources to overwhelmed hospitals.<\/p>\n

The president staked his political reputation on stemming the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. Yet, roughly half of the 800,000 deaths have occurred on his watch. The U.S. is on track to exceed 1 million COVID-19 deaths, the world\u2019s highest death toll.<\/p>\n

How will a nation that is already demoralized, divided, and desensitized react to these latest fear messages? Just three weeks ago, on Dec. 2, Biden announced a\u00a0nine-point plan<\/a>, declaring that \u201cthis is the moment we can put the divisiveness behind us.\u201d Yet, here we are again, with a couple more fixes and the pandemic\u2019s end nowhere in sight.<\/p>\n

The president faces huge headwinds. His earnestness is undercut by confused and ineffective messaging, including the vice president saying, implausibly, that the White House had no idea Omicron was coming;\u00a0a widely admired chief science advisor who has been compromised by raw partisanship and over-exposure<\/a>; and\u00a0a CDC that seems to change guidance at every turn<\/a>. Overall, an exhausted public is asking, Why trust the experts when the virus just keeps roaring back?<\/p>\n

A long list of policy failures has gotten us to this point. Let\u2019s start with testing. Remember when\u00a0the CDC sent out faulty test kits early on<\/a>, and it took a week to get test results? Now, two years into the pandemic, it\u2019s truly sad the average person can\u2019t get an affordable rapid test. Recently,\u00a0Biden announced rapid at home testing would be covered by private insurance<\/a>, but that still hasn\u2019t happened. It makes no sense to require people to fork out for the test and then seek reimbursement. The uninsured and Medicaid or Medicare recipients can\u2019t even get reimbursement.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the administration played catch-up today, promising to deliver a half-billion free rapid tests to homes next month. Federal testing sites will be established nationwide. That\u2019s not bad, but we\u2019re still far behind peer nations, where rapid tests are widely available in pharmacies, grocery stores, and doctors\u2019 offices.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also good that Biden\u2019s expanding test sites. Yesterday,\u00a0Mayor Muriel Bowser urged D.C. residents<\/a>\u00a0to buy rapid testing kits to avoid long lines at testing sites. What\u2019s wrong with this picture? It\u2019s unreasonable to ask a person to risk getting COVID-19 while waiting in a crowd to be tested. It\u2019s equally unreasonable to expect the average person to fork out $26 for a couple of tests.<\/p>\n

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Soon the FDA will authorize a transformative at-home antiviral pill that cuts hospitalizations among at-risk adults by 89 percent. When that day comes, rapid testing becomes indispensable. Without a rapid home test, it\u2019s nearly impossible to access the pill within three to five days after symptoms arise, as clinically indicated.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the worse part\u2014the pill won\u2019t be widely available for months due to supply shortages\u2014reminiscent of the excruciating vaccine shortages last spring. The administration should ensure sufficient supply for all at-risk adults (a full treatment requires 30 tablets over five days). We should also facilitate distribution globally.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re naming variants like hurricanes but using Aristotle\u2019s Greek alphabet. Yet CDC isn\u2019t tracking cases with the technical precision the Weather Service tracks storms named Bob and Anna. CDC\u2019s patchwork disease reporting system was upgraded last month, but without good surveillance from abroad, we\u2019d be pretty much flying blind. The Omicron variant will cause an avalanche of infections among the vaccinated, but CDC isn\u2019t tracking breakthrough infections at all. And speaking of fully vaccinated, that should now be defined as having a booster dose.<\/p>\n

We still have a few good tools that are being under-utilized, along with some others that have little utility. Cloth masks should give way to N95 ventilators, for example, and plastic shields are not particularly useful. Here\u2019s a list of important tools within the president\u2019s disposal.<\/p>\n

First, Biden should use the Defense Production Act to end supply shortages, including for test kits, N95 masks, and effective treatments.<\/p>\n

Second, the administration can make travel safer, especially during the holidays. The president should require proof of vaccination for interstate travel. Unvaccinated Canadians cannot fly domestically; why can Americans? Biden recently required a negative SARS-CoV-2 test 24 hours before boarding a flight to the US. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg could make domestic travel much safer by requiring a similar standard of testing and vaccination.<\/p>\n

Third, the administration should create a secure and confidential national vaccination credential. It can\u2019t be avoided any longer. Europe has mastered the technology. The Department of Homeland Security, with CDC, could issue technical guidance for cities and states to roll out vaccine passports in 2022.<\/p>\n

Fourth, let\u2019s get serious about vaccinating the world. It\u2019s in our national interests to prevent future variants. Biden made a bold pledge to vaccinate 70 percent of the global population by September. Samantha Powers, the USAID Administrator, should be tasked to bring the global pandemic under control, with the same sense of purpose as PEPFAR\u2014the audacious global AIDS program.<\/p>\n

The president has taken lockdowns and school closures off the table. He\u2019s right. We can\u2019t afford to shutter the economy and rob our children of a quality education. These tools also don\u2019t work. Yes, lockdowns and school closures temporarily slow transmission. But each time the economy opens back up, the virus surges. We can\u2019t keep repeating the cycle of closing and opening society two years into the pandemic.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s time to find a way to live with the virus. That means keeping people from getting sick, going to hospital, and dying. The best way is full vaccination; home tests; and good treatments. It\u2019s the president\u2019s job to provide the tools: vaccine credentials and passports, rapid test kits, and ample supplies of antiviral medications and vaccines. That\u2019s a good social contract we can sign for the New Year: Our government resolves to provide the tools, while individuals take responsibility to keep themselves, and their families, safe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BP2C Executive Director Dr. Scott C. Ratzan, Lawrence O. Gostin and Kenneth H. Rabin wrote an Opinion in The Daily Beast on December 22, 2021 titled, “Nearly Two Years and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}