Biden’s New Covid Plan: Preparing and Avoiding New Variants

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Although there are paxlovid pills relatively few “Pfizer is working overtime to get us a million pills this month and more than double next month,” Mr Biden said on Tuesday, as they were mandated late last year.

According to one study, there are an average of 60,000 new US cases per day. New York Times database. That’s far less than the 800,000 daily average in January, at the height of the Omicron-fueled winter wave. However, it’s still much higher than the daily caseload from last June, before Delta experiences a summer surge.

Even if the White House claims things are getting better and there are new federal guidelines Suggests that 70 percent of Americans can stop wearing masks for now, large groups of people remain at risk. Children under the age of 5 are not yet eligible for the vaccine. On Monday, New York State health officials published data It shows that Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine is much less effective at preventing infection in 5 to 11-year-olds than in adolescents or adults.

And an estimated seven million Americans have weakened immune systemsdiseases or other disabilities that make them More vulnerable to severe Covid. White House announced last week He said it has taken several steps to make masks and tests more accessible to these groups.

But Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at Yale University, said that with the fall of nationwide mask guidelines, the administration — and particularly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which loosened mask guidance last week — has put too much burden on it. vulnerable Americans to protect themselves.

A mask order that Mr. Biden has imposed on planes, trains and other forms of travel – at least for the next few weeks – not to be dropped. It will remain in effect until at least March 18, but the CDC is reviewing, said Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.

In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Biden urged Congress to provide new funding to the administration to stockpile more tests, masks and pills. And he said, Americans ordering free tests at home from a government website, covidtests.govWill be able to order more next week.

“I can’t promise that a new variant isn’t coming,” Biden said. “But I can promise you we will do everything we can to be ready if it happens.”

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