White House releases COVID strategy
President Biden aims to improve school, business and worker safety guidelines, boost PPE supply and get vaccines administered to more people, faster.
The top story
President Biden Thursday released a 200-page National Strategy for the Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness and signed . The document explains how the administration plans a response led by public health experts and coordinates actions across government agencies.
In addition to the mask requirement on federal property ordered Wednesday, the president signed 10 new executive orders related to the pandemic:
Directing federal agencies to use the Defense Production Act to reduce shortages of protective equipment and other necessary supplies.
Requiring masks to be worn on airplanes, buses, trains and other interstate transportation.
Directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue updated worker safety guidelines.
Establishing a coronavirus testing board to establish a national testing strategy and oversee expansion of testing capabilities.
Expanding government scientific work aimed at discovering and developing new COVID-19 treatments.
Directing the CDC and others to provide clear national guidance on reopening schools.
Creating a health equity task force so that the COVID-19 response addresses disparities among the most vulnerable.
Expanding collection of COVID-19 data and reporting.
Improving sharing and analysis of COVID-19 data.
Improve healthcare access including community and long-term care.
The president also signed memoranda providing for schools to be reimbursed for protective equipment and covering 100% of state costs for National Guard support for COVID-19 response.
There’s a lot in these orders and the entire plan. Some of it was already being done or had been discussed, but the pandemic’s toll across the USA and the well-publicized staff and supply shortages indicate that more is needed.
And other news
NIAID and White House advisor Dr. Tony Fauci represented the USA at a World Health Organization meeting Thursday, and Vice President Harris had a one-on-one meeting with the WHO director-general.
Meanwhile, there appears to be some pushback on Biden administration claims that the former administration had no vaccine distribution plan.
But we know that there was no comprehensive way to find out how many doses of vaccine are being wasted, thanks to a report by ProPublica.
Stay tuned. And stay safe.