The Washington Post - USA (2022-01-19)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19 , 2022 .THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

how to do it,”Zientssaid—and

stressed thattheWhiteHouse

was focusedonrolling outboost-

er shots to protect vulnerable

Americans.

Zientstouted the administra-

tion’sefforts to speed develop-

mentaswell as supplies of

Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviralpill

authorized justbeforeChristmas

and described as apotential

gamechangerbecause it can be

takenathometoprevent infec-

tions fromadvancing to severe

disease.“Assoon as it became

clear thatitwas aseffective as it

is—90percenteffectiveagainst

severe disease—wemade the

purchase of 20 million doses, the

mostinthe world,” Zients said.

Biden will further detail how

he sees thepathahead inanews

conferenceWednesday,officials

said.It’s acritical moment,with

the publicincreasinglyexhaust-

ed and looking for clear,simple

messagesonhow to navigate

what’snext.

Somehopehewilluse the

opportunitytoreframe how he

talksabout covidtocommuni-

cate to Americansthatitwon’t

quicklyoreasily be eradicated.

“‘Living with covid’isn’trais-

ing awhite flag,” said Celine

Gounder, aNewYorkUniversity

infectious-disease expertwho

wasamong the former Biden

advisers callingfora“newnor-

mal”in thenation’s approach to

the virus. “It’sfocusing ouref-

forts tocurb hospitalizations and

deaths from covid, especially

among the mostvulnerable.”

Gounder addedthe White

House needs to continue to en-

couragemask-wearing,better

deploy tests and improve data

systems to track the virus —

manyofthemeasuresinBiden’s

plan thatremainunfinished.

“There is no such thing as one

silver bullet”tofight the virus,

she said, especially when so many

people aren’t gettingvaccinated.

[email protected]

front,”Udayakumaradded.

Outsideexperts and somead-

ministration officials saidBiden

has soughttoavoid the percep-

tionofprioritizing the interna-

tional response overastill-surg-

ingU. S. outbreak.“It’sbeen diffi-

cult togettheWhiteHouseto

focus on improvingvaccinations

inMalawi,when the president is

gettingcalls about overflowing

hospitalsinMissouri,”said one

officialwho spokeon the condi-

tionofanonymitybecause of the

issue’s sensitivity.

TheWhiteHouse and itsallies

saytheadministration has ad-

dressedeveryaspectofits global-

strategylist, whichincluded re-

viving government teams and

diplomatic efforts thatwere

wound downunder Trump’s

“America First”approach.

“I thinkPresident Biden came

intoasituation wherethe house

was onfireathomeand abroad,”

said Smith, who ledthe State

Department’s covidresponselast

year. “Headsofstate had notmet

and convened on [coronavirus

policy] until PresidentBiden

brought them together.That’s

crazy.”

But Smith, whilepraisingthe

“tremendousprogress”lastyear,

acknowledged thatmore workis

needed to achieve global targets.

“The roadaheadistough,”she

said.

Staythe course or seek‘new

normal’?

Askedwhatthey’velearned

from yearone, Biden officials

said they’ll largelystickto the

samegame planinYearTwo.

“The toolsthatwe’reusing to

fightomicron are the toolsthat

we emphasizedinthestrategic

plan: namelyvaccination, thera-

peutics, testing,appropriate

masking,and other publichealth

standards,”Zientssaid.

Healsoemphasized thecom-

mitmenttokeepingschoolsopen

—“wehavethetoolsandknow

payments, and manyworkers say

the payments wereinconsistent-

ly applied.

Meanwhile, Biden’s plan

vowedto“protectworkers and

issue strongerworkersafety

guidance,” instructingthe Occu-

pationalSafetyandHealth Ad-

ministration to consider protec-

tions. Afterareview,OSHAin

June 2021 issuedatemporary

standard thatrequired health-

care employerstoprovide pro-

tective equipment, adequate

ventilation and othersafetymea-

sures to reduce workers’ risk of

contracting covid.

But the administration

shelvedaseparatestandardthat

would have applied to other

industries, said DavidMichaels,

aGeorgeWashingtonUniversity

professor who previouslyled

OSHAand advised Biden’stran-

sition teamoncovid.

“I thinkalot of people in

public health weredispleased

thatthatstandard was never

issued. And, in retrospect,itwas

reallyaverysignificantmistake,”

Michaels said.

OSHAannouncedlastmonth

thatitwouldletthe health-care

safetystandards lapse,saying it

wasn’treadytoissuepermanent

protections byaDecember dead-

line,even though it believed“the

danger faced by healthcare work-

ers continues to be of thehighest

concern.”

Thedecision alarmed Demo-

cratic senators andhealth work-

ers, who saythatpermanent

workplace safetymeasures are

overdue.

Kennedy,theCalifornianurse,

alsoblamed theexodusofsome

of her colleagues on the lack of

protections.“It’s likeawar zone”

in her hospital right now,Ken-

nedy said.“Weneed thesepro-

tections.And theyneed to be

permanent, because we don’t

knowwhatthe nextpandemic is

goingtobe.”

Inan interview,WhiteHouse

stores.Theadministration also
has helped setuptestingsites
around thenation, harking back
to lastyear’svaccination centers,
and toutedits moves inamemo
to Congress.
Manydeemed thosesteps too
little, toolate.
“This Administration either
kneworshould have knownthat
testing shortages wereoccurring
across the countryoverthe past
several months,” Sens.JoeMan-
chin III (D-W.Va.),Kyrsten Sine-
ma (D-Ariz.) and JackyRosen
(D-Nev.),and other moderates
wrote ZientsonFriday.
Biden’s plan also laidout mea-
sures to address health-carestaff
shortages, including offering
surgeassistance to hospitals and
helpingstates boosttheir work-
forces. Expertspraised theWhite
House announcementlastspring
to investmorethan $7 billion to
recruit and hire publichealth
workers but saiditshould have
been more aggressive with short-
termfixes.
“If they’dapproached me a
yearagoandsaid,‘what’sthe one
problemwe shouldbeworking
on outside of vaccinations?’ I
would have said, ‘staff, staff,
staff,’”saidDavid Grabowski, a
HarvardUniversityspecialiston
lo ng-term care, noting nursing
homeshavelostmore than
400,0 00 workerssince thepan-
demic began.
Grabowski andotherscalled
on thegovernment tofinance a
$5 an hourpay increase for
certified nurse assistants, argu-
ing thatadditional compensa-
tionfor thelow-paid workers
would help stabilize staffing.
“This wasacrisis that, now with
omicron,has becomeastaffing
apocalypse,”hesaid.
ABiden-backedreliefpackage
disbursed billions of dollars in
bonus payments to nurse aides
and other essential workers last
year, butlocalleadershad broad
latitudeonhow tostructure the

biden’s first year

perts saythattheWhiteHouseis

stilldoing too little to prevent

anothervariant from emerging

overseasanddisrupting life in

America again.

Duke’sUdayakumar credits

the administration for donating

morethan365 millionvaccine

doses abroad—farmore than all

other nations combined.But he

saiddeveloping nations arestill

waiting onU. S. aidthatcould

help prevent infections now and

lower the riskofnewvariants

developing.Less than 10 percent

of people in low-income nations

have receivedasingle doseof

coronavirusvaccine, according

to OxfordUniversity’s OurWorld

in Data tracking project.

“The fundamentalrealityis

we’vegotahugetaskahead of us

thatlooks as daunting nowasit

did ayear agoonthe global

officials said the administration

had prioritizedthe safety of

“heroic”health-careworkers.

“We’ve madesurethatthere’s

plentyofavailabilityofPPE [per-

sonal protectiveequipment]and

N95 masks,”Zientssaid.

Officials added theywere navi-

gating afraught political envi-

ronment in which regulations are

consistently challenged, and they

faulted the Supreme Courtfor

striking downaseparateOSHA

rule lastweek thatcompelled

mostlargebusinesses to man-

datevaccinate-or-testrules.

“After this, workers are less

safe,”saidNatalieQuillian, depu-

tyWhiteHousecoronavirus co-

ordinator.“Andthat’snotgood

for workers, that’snotgood for

customers, and that’snotgood

for our economy.”

Meanwhile, global healthex-

0

200 k

400 k

600 k

800 k

1m

1.2m

0

2k

4k

0

1m

2m

3m

4m

5m

Jan.

Jan.

Jan.

Jan. 18

Jan. 18

Jan. 18

Feb. 29, 2020

Feb. 29, 2020

Feb. 29, 2020

7-day avg.

7-dayavg.

7-dayavg.

As of8p.m.Tuesday

67,696,

753,

529,266,

851,

1,

1,158,53 7

7-dayaverage

7-dayaverage

Total

DEATHS

Total

VACCINE DOSESADMINI STERED

Newcoronaviruscases, deaths and

vaccine doses in theU.S., by day

Total

CASES

7-dayaverage

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