- Amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, President Joe Biden is drawing criticism from health experts, who are calling for more urgency, testing, masking and global vaccine sharing.
- Biden’s toughest challenge fighting the pandemic has been political.
- Former CDC Director Tom Frieden told Reuters the administration also needs to step up the promotion of mask-wearing and that subsidizing the costs of masks or distributing them could help.
President Joe Biden is facing criticism from health experts, who are urging for more urgency, testing, masking, and global vaccine sharing in the wake of a new rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays as reported by Reuters.
Emerging cases
Biden, a Democrat, took office in January pledging to get the coronavirus under control.
Eleven months into Biden’s term, however, the United States has recorded 800,000 COVID-19 deaths, over 300,000 of those on his watch, the highest total and per capita of the Group of Seven (G70 wealthiest nations.)
Republican-led opposition means that figure is less than 50% in some states.
“Where’s the leadership that asks for national sacrifice at a time of emergency?”
said Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University.
The White House has repeatedly said it has the tools to fight Omicron without shutting schools and businesses while promising more free tests and widespread booster distribution.
Politics on COVID
Biden’s toughest challenge fighting the pandemic has been political.
“I think they underestimated the fact that the anti-vaccine movement was first and foremost a political movement,” said Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
The White House has sought to depoliticize the issue, sending health officials onto Fox News, even as the cable channel’s conservative commentators sow doubt about vaccines and masks.
The president has sparred with Republican governors whose policies clash with his.
On Thursday, he sounded a grim warning, predicting a winter of “severe illness and death” for those who are unvaccinated.
COVID issues
Biden said earlier this month the government would require private health insurers to reimburse their 150 million customers for the cost of over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests and make 50 million tests available free through rural clinics and health centres for the uninsured.
“There’s more uninsured Americans than that, and what we were only supposed to take one rapid test ever?”
Surging demand for COVID-19 tests from U.S. employers bringing employees back to work exacerbated a nationwide shortage of rapid tests in the fall, driving up costs for state and local testing programs.
“We’re working with governors and state and local health officials to add more capacity,” a White House official said.
Former CDC Director Tom Frieden told Reuters the administration also needs to step up the promotion of mask-wearing and that subsidizing the costs of masks or distributing them could help.
“It’s still too much of a Wild West out there in terms of the market,” he said.
Did you subscribe to our newsletter!
It’s free! Click here to subscribe!
Source: Reuters
