President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have released a seven-point plan to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Here's a quick rundown of the policies they plan to implement once they take office: Diagnostic testing COVID-19 diagnostic testing across the U.S., according to the Biden-Harris Transition website. That means doubling the number of drive-through testing sites and establishing a Pandemic Testing Board, an organizing body that will direct the production and distribution of "tens of millions of tests." The administration also plans to invest in testing technologies that deliver instant results or can be taken at home, to further increase testing coverage. They also want to deploy a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps, a team of 100,000 individuals who will work with local organizations to "perform culturally competent approaches to contact tracing and protecting at-risk populations." Personal protective equipment In addition to expanding America's testing capacity, the incoming administration will boost the national supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) by invoking the Defense Production Act. The act, passed in 1950, allows the executive branch to "expedite and expand the supply of materials and services from the U.S. industrial base needed to promote the national defense," according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency; in this case, the goal is to increase production of PPE at the federal level to relieve pressure on state and local stockpiles that have been severely depleted throughout the pandemic. Long-term, the administration also plans to increase the nation's ability to manufacture PPE in a pinch, "to ensure we are not dependent on other countries in a crisis." Guidance for communities President-elect Biden will direct the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue clear guidance on how schools, businesses and households should navigate the pandemic going forward. For instance, the guidance should specify when schools and businesses should close as infection rates rise and fall in a given community, as well as when stay-at-home measures should be issued. Members of a new COVID-19 task force will help shape these policies and ensure they protect high-risk populations and address racial disparities in medical care, Stat News reported. The guidance will also cover how public facilities, including schools, can be made as safe as possible; to help implement these changes, the Biden administration will call on Congress to pass an emergency package that provides extra funding to schools. An additional "restart package" will provide funds to business owners so they can implement the new safety measures; and another fund will be established for state and local governments whose budgets have become depleted during the pandemic. The state and local fund will be renewable. Treatment and vaccine distribution The Biden-Harris administration plans to invest $25 billion in the manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The ultimate goal is to guarantee the vaccine "gets to every American, cost-free." Clinical data for any approved vaccine will be publicly released, according to the transition website, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists will be allowed to present the data before Congress. The administration also wants to prevent price gouging for approved COVID-19 treatments. Furthermore, "once we succeed in getting beyond this pandemic, we must ensure that the millions of Americans who suffer long-term side effects from COVID don't face higher premiums or denial of health insurance because of this new pre-existing condition," the website notes. Source
