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How the Biden Administration is Battling COVID

With the coronavirus pandemic raging on with no end in sight, the United States of America is one of the hardest-hit countries with a case total of more than 26 million cases and more than 400,000 deaths. The country experiences as of lately more than 100,000 cases each day, and more than 1,000 deaths daily. Why has it gotten this bad? The reason the coronavirus has ravaged the United States so hard is because of the insufficient response the government had given under the Trump administration. Now that there has been a transfer of power as of January 20th, the Biden administration has hit the ground running, the president signing many executive orders to fight the pandemic. The following is what the Biden Administration has accomplished in the two weeks they have been in power.


As Biden was running for president, he had stressed that his response to the pandemic would be different to at the time, President Trump. Once he had come into the office, President Biden had developed a lengthy plan (200 pages of text!) as to how he would stop the spread of COVID-19. His first step is to increase the production of test kits and to increase the number of people tested. He wishes to do this because he would like to increase the number of test kits that are specialized in asymptomatic tests, something that is in high demand. With that same step, he is looking into putting the Defense Production Act into place (something that had been formed during the Korean War to increase the production of necessary material, in this case, it would be to increase the manufacturing of protective equipment for frontline workers, and syringes to distribute the vaccines). He also hopes to administer 100 million vaccines within his first 100 days in office, something that would be crucial to achieving.


Another idea that the President had been talking about before taking office was mandating everyone to make masks. He has followed through with this idea and as a result, people have to wear a mask if they are using public transportation and if they are traveling within this country. He has also added to this plan that if you are going to travel, you must have proof that you have taken a COVID test and that it has resulted in a negative result.

President Biden has made a health equity task force, a task force that looks into the country to find places where communities have been hit hard by the pandemic and taking into account the race, special needs, and ethnicity of the people there. They hope to help the people there who are affected by the unequal treatment in the health care system because minorities have been affected severely by the pandemic, more of them dying with the need to be hospitalized.


The President has also made another order to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (an agency that inspects workplaces) so that they can release new rules on how to keep employees safe in their workplaces. He spoke to the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on how to open schools safely and wished for them to release their own rules on how to do so.


An executive order that the President has signed is an order involving more ways to fight COVID-19 through treatments. He would like the National Institutes of Health to look into more solutions for the virus, as well as the development of future treatments for future pandemics. He hopes that they are more prepared next time a pandemic hits, and they are able to produce vaccines or treatments easier and can distribute them faster.


Based on all of this information, the Biden administration has actively been involved in the pandemic, trying to help the people all that they can. Their steps forward have been shaped by research and trusting the top health experts of the United States who are on their coronavirus task force. All we can do now is follow the guidelines that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) has in place if we want to stop the spread of the virus. Vaccines are being distributed and used, but it will take a while for everyone to be vaccinated, so we must stay cautious. The United States is still very much in this pandemic, and even though it has been more than a year of this pandemic, we must stay vigilant and stay safe.


Until next time,


Keerthana


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