Biden took office with a plan to battle Covid-19, but the course of the pandemic has forced the administration to deviate from that script. Here’s how the president’s year-one plan has held up.
Delta triggered an increase in hospitalization and death rates among unvaccinated people. A Covid-19 patient at a hospital in Houston.“They had a very good strategic plan coming in…we were all feeling good by the end of June,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a former health adviser to Mr. Biden. “The fact is, a clear vision of what living with an endemic Covid is still hasn’t emerged.
“The administration clearly had a strategy that emphasized vaccines, and I think we should recognize that they’ve achieved a fairly remarkable public-health feat in terms of getting a large number of Americans vaccinated,” said Scott Gottlieb, Food and Drug Administration commissioner in the Trump administration. “There were missteps, and the federal employer mandate may have been a bridge too far insofar as it hardened opposition to vaccination.
The president also expanded access to testing, extended a mask mandate on federal property and public transportation, and signed a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package that included funding for vaccine distribution, help for schools to safely reopen, and money for businesses and families. A wave of Covid-19-related school staffing issues has led some states to take drastic steps to keep schools open, including enlisting state employees, retirees and National Guard members to fill in as substitute teachers. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press“The thing that we know, and we knew it from Day One, was that vaccinations were our most effective tool,” said Jeffrey Zients, the White House Covid-19 coordinator.
Administration officials saw the ramping up of vaccines early on in the Biden presidency as pivotal. A nurse prepares Covid-19 vaccines at a pop-up clinic in Oakland, Calif.Under the rules, all employers with 100 or more employees would have to require that their workers be vaccinated or tested weekly. Mr. Biden also mandated Covid-19 vaccines for federal workers and contractors.
But as Omicron spread around the Christmas holidays, the test shortage meant people who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms were unable to confirm if they had the virus and expanded the risk of passing it onto others. In January, the administration said it was requiring private insurers to cover the cost of over-the-counter Covid-19 tests and launching a website where people canHow do you think the government’s pandemic response will differ moving forward? Join the conversation below.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
COVID-19 Through a Nurse’s LensAt the peak of New York’s crisis, a health-care worker brought her camera to the I.C.U.
Read more »
Next COVID-19 Variant Will Be More Contagious Than Omicron, Says WHOTo replace what is currently circulating, the next COVID variant would have to be more transmissible but not necessarily less deadly, WHO warns.
Read more »
23 active duty sailors in the US Navy discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccineThis marks the first time the Navy has thrown currently serving sailors out of the military over mandatory shots.
Read more »
Ohio schools no longer required to conduct COVID-19 contract tracingThe Ohio Department of Health announced on Thursday that kindergarten through 12th-grade schools across the state are no longer required to conduct contract tracing and report daily COVID-19 case totals.
Read more »
Blood test could reveal risk of having long-term health effects of COVID-19While long COVID-19 continues to cause medical problems for thousands of Utahns, new research suggests a blood test could one day help determine a person's risk for the perplexing condition.
Read more »
COVID-19 live updates: SF to change indoor mask rulesBREAKING: Starting on Feb. 1, SF is loosening indoor mask rules for office workers, gym members, and other 'stable cohort' environments for people who are vaccinated and have had booster shots.
Read more »