Six former health advisers to President Joe Biden have called for the U.S. to adopt a new domestic strategy for COVID-19, publishing three opinion pieces in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Jan. 6.
All six authors of the pieces were members of then-President-elect Biden's COVID-19 advisory board. Since the board disbanded after the inauguration, its members grew frustrated with the president's COVID-19 policy, The New York Times reported. Now they've gone public with their concerns and advise the president to alter the nation's tactics to accept that COVID-19 will not be eliminated.
"As the U.S. moves from crisis to control, national strategy needs to be updated. Policymakers need to specify the goals and strategies for the “new normal” of life with COVID-19," reads the first piece, titled "A National Strategy for the 'New Normal' of Life with COVID.'"
It was written by Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, and Celine Gounder, MD. They advise that the U.S. recognize COVID-19 as one of several respiratory viruses and lay out specific data triggers in cases or hospitalizations for emergency measures to take effect.
The other articles, titled "A National Strategy for COVID-19 Medical Countermeasures : Vaccines and Therapeutics" and "A National Strategy for COVID-19: Testing, Surveillance, and Mitigation Strategies" outline specific strategies to implement. These include further development of next-generation vaccines, access to low-cost testing and nationwide medical surveillance systems such as wastewater testing.