Former Biden health advisers say the US needs to change its Covid-19 strategy to a face a “new normal

Former health advisers to President Joe Biden say the US strategy for the Covid-19 pandemic needs to be updated to face a "new normal" of living with the virus, rather than aiming to eliminate it.

 

In three pieces published in the medical journal JAMA, six former Biden advisers proposed a new plan and detailed strategies for testing, mitigation, vaccines and treatments.

 

"Without a strategic plan for the 'new normal' with endemic COVID-19, more people in the US will unnecessarily experience morbidity and mortality, health inequities will widen, and trillions will be lost from the US economy," wrote Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former Obama health adviser now with the University of Pennsylvania; Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota; and Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert at Bellevue Hospital Center and at Grossman School of Medicine at New York University.

 

All were appointed to Biden's Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board in 2020.

 

For this new strategy, "humility is essential," they wrote. There remain unknowns about the virus and its future, and "predictions are necessary but educated guesses, not mathematical certainty." Leaders will have to communicate specific goals and benchmarks, and national plans will need to be adapted for local use.

 

They push for modernized data infrastructure to provide real-time information, a bolstered public health work force, more and empowered school nurses, and moves to rebuild trust in public health institutions. Substantial resources will be needed to "build and sustain an effective public health infrastructure," they write.