Biden signs viral measures, requires mask to travel



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WASHINGTON (AP) – At the heart of the deadliest coronavirus wave and facing worrying new mutations, President Joe Biden will launch its national COVID-19 strategy to speed up vaccinations and testing, reopen schools and businesses, and increase the use of masks – including a requirement for Americans to mask themselves for travel.

Biden will also tackle inequalities in hard-hit minority communities as he signs 10 pandemic-related decrees on Thursday. These orders are a first step and the specific details of many administrative actions are still being worked out.

The new president has vowed to take much more aggressive measures to contain the virus than his predecessor, starting with strict adherence to public health guidelines. He faces significant hurdles, with the virus actively spreading in most states, slow progress in vaccine deployment, and political uncertainty over whether Congressional Republicans will help him push through a $ 1.9 trillion in economic aid and a COVID response plan.

“We have to ask average Americans to do their part,” said Jeff Zients, the White House official who is leading the national response. “Defeat the virus requires a coordinated national effort.

Biden officials say they are hampered by the Trump administration’s lack of cooperation during the transition. They say they do not have a full understanding of the actions of their predecessors when it comes to vaccine distribution. And they face a litany of complaints from states saying they are not getting enough vaccines even though they are being asked to vaccinate more categories of people.

Biden acknowledged the urgency of the mission in his inaugural address. “We are entering what may well be the most difficult and deadly period of the virus,” he said before asking Americans to join him in a moment of silence in memory of the more than 400,000 people died in the United States. from COVID-19.

Biden’s senior medical adviser on COVID-19, Dr Anthony Fauci, also announced renewed US support for the World Health Organization after the Trump administration withdrew from the world body. Fauci said early Thursday that the United States would join the United Nations health agency’s efforts to bring vaccines, therapies and diagnostics to those in need, whether in rich or poor countries, and would resume full funding and staff support from WHO.

The US mask order for travel implemented by Biden will apply to airports and planes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from overseas must provide a negative COVID-19 test before leaving for the United States and quarantine upon arrival. Biden has previously commissioned masks on federal property.

Although airlines, Amtrak and other transportation providers now require masks, Biden’s order makes them a federal mandate, leaving little room for passengers tempted to discuss their rights. It marks a clean break with the culture of President Donald Trump’s administration, in which masks were optional, and Trump made a point of going without masks and hosting large gatherings of like-minded supporters. . Science has shown that masks, when worn correctly, reduce the transmission of coronaviruses.

Biden is also looking to expand testing and vaccine availability, with the goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in the office.. Zients called Biden’s goal “ambitious and achievable.”

The Democratic president has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to start setting up vaccination centers, aiming to have 100 in operation within a month. He orders the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available at local pharmacies starting next month. And he is mobilizing the public health service to deploy to help localities with vaccinations.

There is also support for states. Biden orders FEMA to reimburse states for the full cost of using their national guards to set up vaccination centers. This includes the use of supplies and protective equipment as well as personnel.

But some independent experts believe the administration should set a bar higher than 100 million shots. During flu season, the United States is able to immunize about 3 million people a day, said Dr Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. “Given the number of people dying from COVID, we could and should be doing more – like what we are able to do against seasonal flu,” he said.

Zients said Biden would not follow through on a Trump administration plan to penalize late vaccination states by shifting part of their allocation to more efficient states. “We are not trying to pit one state against another,” he said.

Biden has set a goal of having most K-8 schools reopened in its first 100 days, and he’s ordering the education and health and human services departments to provide clear guidelines for reopening. safe schools. States could also use FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to help them reopen schools.

Setting up schools and daycares will help ease the burden on the U.S. economy, making it easier for parents to return to work and to restaurants to find lunchtime customers.

But administration officials stressed that reopening schools safely depends on increasing testing.

To increase supplies, Biden gives the green light to government agencies to use a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to direct manufacture.

“We don’t have nearly enough testing capacity in this country,” Zients said. “We need the money to really speed up testing, which is so important to reopening schools and businesses.”

This means that efforts to reopen the economy will depend on how quickly lawmakers act on Biden’s proposed $ 1.9 trillion package, which includes separate items such as $ 1,400 in direct payments to people, a salary. minimum of $ 15 and aid to state and local governments that some Republican lawmakers deem unnecessary to deal with the medical emergency. The Biden plan estimates that a national immunization strategy with extensive testing requires $ 160 billion, and he wants an additional $ 170 billion to help reopen schools and universities. The proposal also calls for a major investment in scientific research to keep up with new strains of the virus, amid fears that some mutations may spread more easily and also prove to be more difficult to treat.

As part of his COVID-19 strategy, Biden will order the creation of a COVID-19 health equity task force to ensure that minority and underserved communities are not left out of the government’s response. Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans have borne a heavy burden of death and illness from the virus. Surveys have shown that vaccine reluctance is high among African Americans, a problem the administration plans to address through an education campaign.

But Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, the White House’s senior health adviser for minority communities, said she was not convinced race should be a factor in vaccination. The disparities seem to be more related to risky jobs and other life circumstances.

“It’s not inherent to the breed,” she says. “It comes from the exhibitions.”

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Associated Press editors Collin Binkley and Josh Boak contributed to this report.

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