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PResident-elect Joe Biden has established a 13-member coronavirus advisory board that will play a high-profile role in helping the Biden-Harris administration contain the coronavirus pandemic in the US as it enters its phase. deadliest yet.
“Failure is not an option here,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota and a member of the advisory council, told The Guardian. “We have to do everything possible to reduce the impact of the virus on our society.”
The high-powered board, which includes a former US Surgeon General, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, prominent virologists, and experts in biodefense and the health of underserved populations, is a sea change from the Trump administration. .
Trump used to muzzle scientists, promote disinformation, seek to change scientific orientation for political purposes, and divert much of the Covid-19 response to states.
“The work has been going on for months,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, clinical assistant professor of infectious diseases in NYU Langone Health’s department of medicine and a member of the advisory council. “The role of the advisory board is kind of the bigger picture, to have a second set of eyes on these plans to provide feedback and come up with big ideas.”
The next few weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic will be among the most challenging as the US breaks records for new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with deaths that are sure to follow and economic consequences are likely to follow.
The disease has killed 242,000 people and is claiming more than 1,000 lives a day. The rate of hospitalized Americans has more than doubled in two weeks, and the upcoming vacation threatens to worsen the pandemic exponentially.
“It’s important to understand that pretty much the entire US is becoming an access point, which means that nothing is really an access point anymore, everything is,” Osterholm said.
Biden’s campaign featured a multi-pronged plan to deal with the virus, including:
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Shared Guidance on Reopening the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
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a huge expansion of testing and production of protective equipment;
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an expansion of health insurance benefits;
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a logistically challenging multi-pronged vaccination campaign to provide free vaccines;
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hire 100,000 new public health workers;
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and lobbying for economic relief from the coronavirus.
Scientists and researchers selected by the Biden-Harris administration will work on that plan, and will also discuss extensively how to address public trust, rampant viral spread, vaccine distribution, and even novel solutions like detecting Covid-19 in entire towns. , according to Gounder.
“Really, scaling up testing is a big priority, because you can’t really understand how the virus is spreading if you don’t have that kind of data,” Gounder said. Importantly, there is disagreement on the board – not everyone agrees on how to approach the response to the pandemic, and this is by design.
President-elect Joe Biden radically departed from his predecessor’s strategy, bringing together a group of 13 of the nation’s most prominent scientists to lead a federal response to the pandemic.
The very appointment of the group is a clear departure from the Trump administration, which has still refused to budge or assist in a transition. Biden has also signaled that he would make much of the federal government face the Covid-19 challenge. Announced a 52-member Covid-19 transition team to coordinate federal agencies.
Trump’s intransigence has consequences: The most ambitious plans of this group will likely have to wait until January 20 when Biden takes office. Yet as a nationwide surge in infections grips the country, the group can tackle perhaps its most important challenge: gaining buy-in from the American people.
“[Biden’s] The biggest challenge will be rebuilding trust, ”said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency doctor and professor of public health at George Washington University, who is not on the advisory council. She previously served as Baltimore’s health commissioner. “We will not be able to stop the waves and infections if half the country does not follow their lead.”
Overwhelmingly, those who called the economy their biggest problem voted for the now-outgoing President Trump. But those people must be involved to participate in public health measures such as wearing masks and social distancing to stem the tide of infection.
“If I could change one thing right now, I wish everyone in this country could spend just an hour in an intensive care unit,” Osterholm said, as a way to convince the American public of the seriousness of the disease. “That has been one of the challenges, it is the fact that people still think that this is not real.”
