President Biden Announces New Measures to Combat Omicron
On Dec. 21, President Biden laid out plans to expand COVID-19 testing sites across the U.S., deliver a half-billion free at-home tests, and deploy additional federal health resources to assist overwhelmed hospitals due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
The White House issued a statement saying that “We know how to protect people from severe illness, we have the tools needed to do it, and thanks to the President’s Winter Plan, we are ready: 73 percent of adult Americans are fully vaccinated—up from less than one percent before the President took office—and we are getting about 1 million booster shots in arms each day. Vaccines are free and readily available at 90,000 convenient locations. There is clear guidance on masking and other measures that help slow the spread of COVID-19. And, federal emergency medical teams are ready to respond to surges nationwide.”
An article from The Washington Post by Andrew Jeong states that “At the White House, Biden acknowledged that Americans are ‘tired, worried and frustrated’ with COVID-19, which he described as a ‘tough adversary.’ But he stressed in remarks at the White House that ‘we’ve shown that we’re tougher; tougher because we have the power of science and vaccines that prevent illness and save lives.’”
Jeong adds that Biden emphasized that the number of cases surged to 2020 levels, but the outlook is different as we know more about the virus, and we have vaccines and other treatment.
That said, “The Biden Administration will start delivering a half-billion free rapid tests to homes next month, according to the statement, and health officials will set up a website where Americans can order them. New federal testing sites will also be established across the country, starting with one in New York City this week.”
Another major concern is that the emergence and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant could overwhelm healthcare facilities across the country. “The variant accounted for 73 percent of new coronavirus cases in the United States between Dec. 12 and 18, according to modeled projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Jeong reports.
Jeong adds that “To relieve overrun hospitals, the federal government will immediately send emergency medical teams to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the President said. Some of those states, such as Michigan, had been suffering from case surges even before the announcement of the first Omicron case in the United States this month.”
“The administration will deploy an additional 1,000 military doctors, nurses, paramedics and other healthcare personnel to strained medical centers in January and February as needed, the White House said,” Jeong continues. “The President is set to order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to work with states and territories to prepare more hospital beds ahead of expected surges.”
Guest host John Heilemann on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” interviewed Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, about Biden’s plan and the spread of the Omicron variant. Osterholm explained to Heilemann that we should expect to see 10 percent of doctors and nurses in our country infected with Omicron within the course of the next few weeks—this will be one of the biggest problems we’re going to face with the variant.
Regarding supplies, according to the statement from The White House, the U.S. government has “hundreds of millions of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of gowns, and over 100,000 ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile.” These supplies are ready to ship “if and when states need them.” The supplies are pre-positioned in “strategic locations” across the U.S. so that they can be sent to states in immediate need. Additionally, HHS is continuing to expedite the deployment of ventilators.
Healthcare associations are already praising President Biden’s actions. The American Hospital Association’s (AHA) President and CEO, Rick Pollack, issued the following statement:
“The AHA welcomes President Biden and his Administration joining us in sounding the alarm over the national workforce crisis facing America’s hospitals and health systems, along with the need to respond to the impact of the current surge and the urgent need to get everyone fully vaccinated and boosted. After nearly two years of battling the COVID-19 pandemic and going absolutely full throttle, our nation’s healthcare professionals have been pushed to the brink but continue to step up each and every day.
Today’s actions will help hospitals and their caregivers continue to provide the care their patients and communities depend on. We continue to urge the Administration to use all available tools at their disposal and not leave any resources or support on the sidelines. We also reiterate our call for all eligible Americans to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as they can in order to protect themselves, their families and their communities against the worst effects of the virus.”
