Joe Biden Covid-19 Measures
Joe Biden Covid-19 Measures, including requiring Americans to wear masks when traveling. US President Joe Biden has served notice that the nation’s COVID-19 response is under new management, demanding progress to reduce infections and lift the siege Americans have endured for nearly a year.
The 10 orders signed by Mr Biden on Thursday local time are aimed at jump-starting his national COVID-19 strategy to increase vaccinations and testing, lay the groundwork for reopening schools and businesses, and immediately increase the use of masks — including a requirement that Americans mask up for travel.
Mr Biden said the death toll from coronavirus would probably top 500,000 next month, painting a grim picture of what he said would be a difficult time for the country.
“Things are going to continue to get worse before they get better,” he said.
The President cautioned that it would likely “take months to turn this around”.
“Despite the best intentions, we’re going to face setbacks,” he said.
The new president has vowed to take far more aggressive measures to contain the virus than his predecessor, starting with stringent adherence to public health guidance.
He faces steep obstacles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress on the vaccine rollout and political uncertainty over whether congressional Republicans will help him pass a $US1.9 trillion ($2.4 trillion) economic relief and COVID response package.
“We need to ask average Americans to do their part,” said Jeff Zients, the White House official directing the national response.
“Defeating the virus requires a coordinated nationwide effort.”
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, was tasked by Mr Biden to give an update on the coronavirus pandemic after largely being sidelined in recent months by former president Donald Trump.
Dr Fauci said the new administration would “be completely open and honest” in dealing with the pandemic, adding everything now would be “based on science and evidence”.
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Asked if he felt less constrained dealing with the new administration, Dr Fauci answered: “The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know … what the science is and know that’s it, let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
Dr Fauci said based on recent seven-day averages, coronavirus infections may be about to hit a plateau in the United States.
He added coronavirus vaccines could be modified to account for new variants of the virus, and that while the South Africa variant was concerning, it did not appear to be in the United States.
He said he expected current vaccines to be effective against the recently discovered mutations.
“Bottom line, we’re paying very close attention to it for our alternative plans if we have to ever modify the vaccine,” he said.
“But right now, from the reports we have … it appears that the vaccines will still be effective against them.”
For months, coronavirus has spiralled out of control, with the US death toll now exceeding 400,000.
Biden officials said they had been hampered by a lack of cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition, adding that they did not have a complete understanding of their predecessor’s actions on vaccine distribution.
They are also facing a litany of complaints from states that say they are not getting enough vaccine doses even as they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.
Mr Biden acknowledged the urgency of the mission in his inaugural address.
“We are entering what may well be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus,” he said before asking Americans to join him in a moment of silence in memory of the more than 400,000 people in the US who have died from COVID-19.
Dr also announced renewed US support for the World Health Organization after the Trump administration had pulled out of the global body.
Dr Fauci said early on Thursday that the US would join the UN health agency’s efforts to bring vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to people in need, whether in rich or poor countries and would resume full funding and staffing support for the WHO.
The US mask order for travel being implemented by Mr Biden will apply to trains, intercity buses and other public transport, airports, planes and ships.
Travellers from abroad must return a negative COVID-19 test before departing for the US and must quarantine upon arrival.
Mr Biden has already mandated masks on federal property.
Although airlines, Amtrak and other transport providers now require masks, Mr Biden’s order makes it a federal mandate, leaving little wiggle room for passengers tempted to argue about their rights.
Mr Biden also is seeking to expand testing and vaccine availability, with the goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office.
The President has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin setting up vaccination centres, aiming to have 100 up and running in a month.
He’s ordering the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies starting next month, and is mobilising the Public Health Service to deploy to assist localities in vaccinations.
There is also support for states. Mr Biden is ordering FEMA to reimburse states for the full cost of using their National Guards to set up vaccination centres. That includes the use of supplies and protective gear as well as personnel.
But some independent experts say the administration should be setting a higher bar for itself than 100 million shots.
During flu season, the US is able to vaccinate about 3 million people a day, said Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle.
Mr Zients said Mr Biden would not follow through on a Trump administration plan to penalise states lagging in vaccination by shifting some of their allocation to more efficient states.
“We are not looking to pit one state against another,” he said.
Mr Biden has set a goal of having most K-8 schools reopen in his first 100 days, and he’s ordering the departments of Education and Health and Human Services to provide clear guidance for reopening schools safely.
States would also be able to tap FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to help them get schools back open.
Getting schools and child care going will help to ease the drag on the US economy, making it easier for parents to return to their jobs and restaurants to find lunch-time customers.
But administration officials stressed that reopening schools safely depends on increased testing.
To ramp up supplies, Mr Biden is giving government agencies a green light to use a Cold War-era law called the Defence Production Act to direct manufacturing.
“We do not have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” Mr Zients said.
“We need the money in order to really ramp up testing, which is so important to reopen schools and businesses.”
This means that efforts to reopen the economy will hinge on how quickly Congress acts on the $US1.9 trillion package proposed by Mr Biden, which includes separate planks such as $US1,400 in direct payments to people, a $US15 minimum wage and aid to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers see as unnecessary for addressing the medical emergency.
The Biden plan estimates that a national vaccination strategy with expanded testing requires $US160 billion, and he wants another $US170 billion to aid the reopening of schools and universities.
The proposal also calls for major investment in scientific research to track new strains of the virus, amid concern that some mutations may spread more easily and also prove harder to treat.
As part of his COVID-19 strategy, Mr Biden will order the establishment of a COVID-19 Health Equity Taskforce to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of the Government’s response.
Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans have borne a heavy burden of death and disease from the virus. Surveys have shown vaccine hesitancy is high among African Americans, a problem the administration plans to address through an education campaign.
But Marcella Nunez-Smith, the top White House health adviser on minority communities, said she was not convinced that race should be a factor in vaccination.
Disparities seem to have more to do with risky jobs and other life circumstances.
“It’s not inherent to race,” she said. “It’s from the exposures.”
source : abc.net.au
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