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White House Updates Plan Against
COVID-19
Four Major Goals
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After experiencing
five waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US between March 2020 and
March 2022, the Biden Administration has released an updated 97 page
plan to fight the anticipated future challenges from SARS CoV 2,
including any new waves.
The Good News
The plan document
notes that 215 million Americans are now fully vaccinated and that an
estimated two-thirds of eligible adults have received their booster
shot. Persons who have received this vaccine regimen have been found
to be 41 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than unvaccinated
individuals.
Estimates in the
report suggest that vaccines have saved over 1 million lives among
Americans and prevented 10 million hospitalizations. Another
encouraging equity result reported in the plan document is that
Hispanic, Black, and Asian adults are now vaccinated on a par with
White adults. Also, the Administration has committed to donating 1.2
billion doses of vaccine to other countries. To date, the US has
delivered 475 million free doses to 112 countries, several times more
than what has been donated by any other country.
Goals
The plan’s four major
goals are 1) to protect and treat against COVID-19, 2) to prepare for
new variants, 3) prevent economic and educational shutdowns, and 4)
lead the effort to vaccinate the world and save lives.
Examples of more
specific actions described in the plan related to new variants are,
“…the CDC launched – and is continually enhancing – the National
Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) to track the presence of
SARS-COV-2 in wastewater samples collected across the country. ..
...And America has
established a world-class sequencing operation, sequencing up to
90,000 isolates a week. The CDC’s sequencing efforts can now reliably
detect variants that account for as little as 0.1% of all COVID-19
cases circulating in the United States. And when new variants are
identified, the federal government has a network of researchers –
federal, academic, and commercial – who are able to study the sequence
and assess mutations rapidly, allowing the government to respond
quickly to concerning variants. “
On the goal related to
preventing shutdowns in schools and the economy, the plan asserts
that schools, workers, and workplaces now have resources and guidance
to prevent shutdowns.
The Administration
states that it will work with Congress to obtain the necessary funding
to implement the multiple actions called for in the plan. To read the
executive summary or the full plan document, visit:
https://bit.ly/3tw2D1F
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