A Different Approach To Covid-19 Strategy Proposed To Biden

Former Advisory Board members and health officials, and esteemed doctors, are now pressing the President to take a different approach to national COVID-19 strategies and response in efforts to help the USA live with a ‘new normal.’ 

Drs. Ezekiel Emanuel, Michael Osterholm, Celine Gounder, David Michaels, Rick Bright, and Luciana Borio offered various suggestions to the Biden administration for how to move forward. In addition, they offered ways to update the national strategy within a series of opinion articles posted by the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

A Move On From Zero Covid Strategies 

Former Advisory Board members, health officials, and the six doctors, as reported on Fox News, believe the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is here to stay and with this, a ‘new normal’ must be embraced. 

They believe the goal to eradicate or eliminate the virus has become outdated. According to the Journal, doctors believe the virus cannot be eradicated, with vaccines not providing sterilizing immunity against the infection. 

“Infectious diseases cannot be eradicated when there is limited long-term immunity following infection or vaccination or nonhuman reservoirs of infection.” SARS-CoV-2 forms part of several circulating respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). 

Over the years, US citizens have continually faced the threat of respiratory illnesses, and viewing Covid-19 in this manner would allow persons to continue living a ‘new normal. However, those mentioned in the journal made the severity of this respiratory virus more serious. 

Recommendations Set Out For Biden Administration

The Journal vividly points out that the US has failed to properly institute vital reforms, with the current pattern needing rapid evolution. Should Biden and his administration fail to adapt strategies and Covid-19 responses, more US citizens will experience mortality and morbidity, health and financial inequities, and trillions lost in the economy. 

To prepare for the future, the journal advises the following:  

• Implement infrastructure that includes a real-time electronic collection of comprehensive information on respiratory viral infections, hospitalizations, deaths, disease-specific outcomes, and immunizations merged with sociodemographic and other relevant variables.
• Implement system infrastructure to collect data at the national, state, and local level and from various academic institutions, laboratories, and healthcare systems.
• A permanent public health implementation workforce, including public agency workers and school nurses, to address problems and emergencies as well as to create pathways to increase remote telemedicine practice and medical payments across the US.
• Rebuild trust in public health institutions and a belief in collective action in service of public health
• Empowering school nurses to assist with large unmet public health needs of adolescents and children
• Set up a comprehensive, permanently funded system for testing, surveillance, and mitigation measures that do not currently exist
• Faster development and more efficient deployment of vaccines and therapeutics.
• Even though the doctors pushed for new approaches and responses to national strategy, the doctors’ support to Biden’s mandate approach needs more work to determine optimal dosages and administration of existing vaccinations. 
• Next-generation COVID-19 vaccines which match SARS-CoV-2 variants need to be deployed. Further, efforts to develop a universal Covid-19 vaccine should be accelerated.  
• Investment in innovative approaches to improve vaccine access should be made on a global scale, as well as implementation of better tracking of postvaccination infections through an electronic vaccine platform. 

“Policymakers should weigh not only the costs but also the benefits, including fewer deaths and lost productivity from COVID-19… Indeed, after more than 800 000 deaths from COVID-19, and a projected loss of $8 trillion in the gross domestic product through 2030, these interventions will be immensely valuable.”

White House And Biden Administration’s Response To Suggested New Approach

While the White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stated on Fox News that the Biden Administration has yet to read the journals, they are, however, doing everything in their power to defeat Covid-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Biden’s focus and goal have been to save as many lives as possible. 

“And we know what works, and we know that pushing more people, getting more people vaccinated, getting more people boosted, encouraging mask-wearing, making sure schools have the resources they need to stay open and do that in a safe way – these are steps that work.”