When President Joe Biden took office, his government made it clear that it intended to crack down on COVID-19 pandemic By focusing on getting the country vaccinated. As the delta change of the coronavirus is raging and a large number of Americans refuse to be vaccinated, this strategy is under review.
When Democrat Biden succeeded Republican President Donald Trump on January 20, about 400,000 people died of COVID-19 in the United States, and thousands more died every day. Vaccination has just begun.
Biden’s team promoted a major vaccine promotion and incentive campaign involving 42,000 pharmacies, dozens of mass vaccination sites, ride-sharing companies, a beer manufacturer, and 5,100 active military personnel. Senior officials scattered across the country, preaching a meticulously honed message: vaccination means returning to normal.
In many parts of the United States, it worked. Millions of people are lining up for vaccination. As the national vaccination rate increases, the daily number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths is declining.
But some critics say that the focus on vaccines has been accompanied by a decrease in COVID-19 testing, mixed information about masking, and unexpected strong anti-vaccination sentiment, misinformation, and the ability of the virus to quickly mutate into more powerful variants.
“In order to protect the country from COVID, you need multiple strategies,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of California, San Francisco. “We have caught up with the trend and excitement of vaccines at the expense of other core strategies in the pandemic.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 cases are increasing in nearly 90% of the jurisdictions in the United States, with outbreaks in areas with low vaccination rates.
The surge in new cases has cast a shadow over the full-speed recovery before the economic recovery. If unemployment benefits, rent suspensions and other support during the pandemic begin to expire, consumers become more cautious and spending slows down, the risk may be Especially big.
White House COVID-19 testing coordinator Carol Johnson said: “Vaccination is still the most important thing we can do to prevent the spread of the virus, so we need to do our best to support vaccination.”
White House officials said that Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, the American Rescue Plan, invested billions of dollars in COVID testing for schools and uninsured people.
Underestimate the anti-vax movement
The refusal of Americans to take free, widely available vaccines to protect them from serious illness and death has puzzled Biden’s White House.
Although vaccines can largely protect people from infection and transmission of Delta variants, in rare cases, a fully vaccinated person can contract the virus and possibly spread it.
Biden increasingly refers to this epidemic as one of the unvaccinated epidemics.
Anthony Fauci, a top US infectious disease expert, told Reuters: “This is an unfortunate confusion of two things, that is, a virus has evolved to spread from person to person with a very high efficiency… superimposed on the almost inexplicable vaccination. Above the resistance.”
Fauci said that the federal government will rely at least in part on schools and companies to provide vaccination requirements for its students and employees to stimulate backward vaccination rates.
“If you can’t get people to voluntarily… do things that are important to their own health and the health of the country, then you talk about stress. Stress is a local requirement,” he said.
According to the CDC, approximately 163.3 million people (49.2% of the total U.S. population) have been fully vaccinated. The agency’s data shows that vaccination rates have risen slightly in recent weeks. Testing has also been added.
Many experts suggest that in combination with people who develop immunity after infection, vaccinating 70% or more of the population can help curb the spread of COVID-19 through so-called herd immunity.
However, the ability of the coronavirus to quickly mutate into new, highly contagious variants makes people wonder whether herd immunity can be achieved.
Reuters analysis shows that as of July 27, the United States is expected to vaccinate 70% of the population by December 16, much later than many advanced economies.
Politics is at least part of the reason.
Some Republican lawmakers refused to disclose whether they were vaccinated and opposed Biden’s efforts to get more people vaccinated.
The 79-year-old congressman said that the spread of misinformation triggered one of the Biden administration’s toughest policy opponents, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Mitch McConnell), who plans to use his hometown of Kentucky for re-election. Financially funded advertisements supporting vaccination. Reuters.
The opposition to vaccination did not come out suddenly. Reuters/Ipsos polls show that by 2020 and early 2021, hesitation has matured.
The White House has repeatedly opposed misinformation, especially on social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube.
Dr. Peter Hotz, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said that the Biden administration recognizes the importance of the “horrible impact” of the anti-vaccine movement, but he said the government can do more.
“Anti-science can be said to be one of the main killers of the American people, but we have not treated it like this. We have not given it the same status as global terrorism, nuclear proliferation and cyber attacks,” he said.
The Caesars Family Foundation said earlier this month that its investigation showed that Democrats were more likely than Republicans to say they were vaccinated.
Former Trump administration officials believe that Biden should give some credit to his predecessors because he promoted the rapid development of vaccines to increase the vaccination rate of his supporters.
Trump, who continues to falsely claim that he won the 2020 election, is the only living president who has not participated in public service announcements to encourage people to get vaccinated.
The White House rejected criticism that it did not engage Trump more.
Wear a mask as a reward
The Biden administration tried to create incentives for all political factions by emphasizing that according to the CDC guidelines updated in the spring, those who receive injections can move around without covering their mouths and noses.
Biden said in a speech at the Rose Garden of the White House on May 13: “If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask.”
But critics say the guidelines for wearing masks are confusing.
On Tuesday, the CDC partially changed its course, encouraging vaccinated Americans to re-wear masks in indoor public places in areas where the Delta variant is spreading rapidly.
Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine and infectious disease epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, said: “To be honest, I think it’s like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube,” he was referring to People put on masks again.
At the same time, as the Delta variant spreads, the lack of testing makes it more difficult to track asymptomatic cases.
Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research and Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, said that rapid testing will help vaccinated people to self-check before traveling or dining in a restaurant.
“This is a blatant disappearance,” he said.
The White House said that Biden’s US rescue plan invested US$4.8 billion in testing uninsured persons and US$10 billion in school testing.
Test coordinator Johnson said: “Testing tends to ebb and flow with cases.” “Because… we work hard to get people vaccinated, and not many people seek testing.”
In 2020, U.S. regulatory agencies have worked hard to authorize dozens of COVID-19 tests, including low-cost and rapid antigen testing, with the goal of increasing national testing capacity to approximately 200 million tests per month by the end of 2020.
But as the vaccination rate increases, the demand for testing decreases. Earlier this month, Abbott Laboratories said it had laid off 400 workers in its two test manufacturing facilities in response to falling demand.
— Supplementary report by Carl O’Donnell and Howard Schneider
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