The US currently leads the world in total number of COVID-19 infections and close to 240,000 Americans have died.
President-elect Joe Biden has laid out a starkly different coronavirus plan (Image: texastribune)
The sheer scale and urgency of America's burgeoning public health crisis is difficult to comprehend, let alone fix. Tackling the coronavirus pandemic will be the top priority for US president-elect Joe Biden and vice-president elect Kamala Harris when they assume office on January 20. The duo have already announced a COVID-19 taskforce that will advise on their federal response — a plan they describe as being built on a "bedrock of science".
"I'll spare no effort, none, or any commitment, to turn around this pandemic," Joe Biden said in his victory address.
So how does the incoming president plan to tackle America's escalating COVID-19 crisis?
Coronavirus questions answered
First, how bad is the situation in America?
Really, really bad — and looks to be getting worse. US cases of COVID-19 have now topped 10 million — that's almost a fifth of all cases worldwide.
Case numbers have recently been rising by more than 100,000 each day. Last week, the US hit its highest daily number of new cases since the pandemic began — more than 130,000 — and it reported more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths per day for four straight days.
Experts fear with the virus surging and Americans heading indoors for winter and holiday season, infections are likely to spread even faster.
"Without significant action, the idea that we have another 100,000 deaths by Inauguration Day would be a conservative estimate," Dr Ashish K. Jha of Brown University told The New York Times.
What's Biden's new COVID-19 task force? The president-elect has announced a COVID-19 advisory board made up of public health experts, who will help coordinate the incoming administration's response to the pandemic.
"I will be informed by science and by experts," President-elect Biden said in a statement. The coronavirus advisory panel will be led by three co-chairs: former surgeon-general Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner David Kessler, and physician-researcher Marcelle Nunez-Smith of Yale University. (You can see the full list of experts here.) President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris receive a briefing from the transition COVID-19 advisory board. Several members of the task force have already been advising Biden and Harris on their COVID-19 strategy and the policies required to combat and contain the spread of coronavirus.
According to health news website STAT News, Biden healthcare advisers have begun reaching out to mayors and governors to plan for a transition of power at health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA. But Biden won't have any formal power or the ability to make policy decisions until he's sworn in on January 20.
In the meantime, Donald Trump remains Commander-in-Chief and Chief Executive of the US.
What has Biden promised so far? The president-elect has laid out an ambitious plan to tackle the coronavirus epidemic, underpinned by a promise to "listen to science", "ensure public health decisions are informed by public health professionals", and "promote trust, transparency, common purpose, and accountability in [his] government".
His first goal is to significantly ramp up testing to "ensure all Americans have access to regular, reliable, and free testing".
He's pledged to double the number of federally run drive-through testing sites and direct more funding to "next-generation testing", including at-home and rapid tests. Borrowing a page from former US president Franklin Roosevelt, Biden says he'll create a "Pandemic Testing Board" similar to Roosevelt's War Production Board — an agency set up to supervise the production of war supplies during World War II — to help produce and distribute tens of millions of COVID-19 tests.
He's also promised to establish "US Public Health Jobs Corps" that would "mobilize" 100,000 Americans to work with local organizations to perform contact tracing and other health services to protect at-risk populations, including older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions. When it comes to personal protective equipment (PPE), which the Trump administration has been repeatedly criticized for failing to provide, Biden says he'll use the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of masks, face shields, and other PPE so that supply exceeds demand.
In addition, addressing shortages among healthcare workers, the president-elect will urge state governors to implement mask mandates (some states already have these), so that every state will require people to wear masks in public. "It's time to end the politicization of basic public health steps like mask wearing and social distancing," Biden said in a speech, in which he pleaded for Americans to wear masks to slow the spread of the virus.
"We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. "In a push for "clear, consistent, evidence-based guidelines", Biden says he'll lean on the CDC to play a more active role in advising when it is necessary to close (or safe to re-open) businesses, restaurants, schools and other public places, as well as what social distancing restrictions should be put in place and when.
The president-elect has also pledged to establish a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities task force (to provide recommendations on the disparities in public health) and to create a nationwide Pandemic Dashboard that "Americans can check in real-time to help them gauge whether local transmission is actively occurring" in their area, and assess their risk.
What about plans for a vaccine?
If a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is found and approved, the Biden-Harris administration will be tasked with the job of manufacturing and distributing tens of millions of doses — which they've pledged $25 million to do.
They say "that will guarantee it gets to every American, cost-free".
President-elect Biden welcomed news today from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that early data suggests its vaccine candidate may be 90 per cent effective at preventing the COVID-19.
But he warned that even if a vaccine was approved, it would still be many more months before it was widely available.
"This is why the head of the CDC warned this fall that for the foreseeable future, a mask remains a more potential weapon against the virus than the vaccine," he said in a statement.
"Today's news does not change this urgent reality."
how likely is he to achieve all this Biden has pledged to swiftly reverse several of Donald Trump's controversial policies in his first few days of office, which can be done through executive orders — written orders issued by the president which do not require congressional approval. This is likely to include a move to re-join the World Health Organization, which Trump moved to withdraw from earlier this year.
There are, however, several measures that will require the cooperation of Congress, which Republicans may maintain control over.
If that's the case, delivering on spending promises (including emergency packages for schools and small businesses) will be less straightforward, and Biden may face opposition to his nominees for various health posts.
(This story has been edited by DevNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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