Path Out of The Pandemic

President Biden is implementing a six-pronged, comprehensive national strategy that employs the same science-based approach that was used to successfully combat previous variants of Covid-19 earlier this year.

This plan will use every available tool to combat Covid-19 and save lives, keep schools open and safe, and protect our economy.

Vaccinating the Unvaccinated

Nearly 80 million Americans eligible to be vaccinated have not yet gotten their first shot.

Covid vaccines have been available to every individual age 16 and older since April 19 and to those age 12 and older since May. Since that time, employers, schools, nursing homes, restaurants, hospitals, and cities in all 50 states have announced new vaccination requirements. Since July, the share of job postings that require vaccination are up 90%. After United Airlines announced its vaccination requirement, more than half of its unvaccinated employees went out and got vaccinated weeks before the deadline. In Washington State, the weekly vaccination rate jumped 34% after the governor announced requirements for state workers.

All told, these efforts—and countless other Administration initiatives and policies—have resulted in over 175 million fully vaccinated Americans. President Biden’s Plan will:

• Require all employers with 100+ employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly
• Require vaccinations for all federal workers and for millions of contractors that do business with the federal government
• Require Covid-19 vaccinations for over 17 million health care workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals and other health care settings
• Call on large entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing for entry
• Require employers to provide paid time off to get vaccinated

Further Protect the Vaccinated

Over 175 million fully vaccinated Americans are largely protected from a severe illness from Covid-19.

While so-called “breakthrough infections” among this group do happen, they remain the exception: Recent data indicates there is only 1 confirmed positive case per 5,000 fully vaccinated Americans per week.

In August, the nation’s top health officials released an initial plan for booster shots aimed at staying ahead of the virus. The plan allows for states, pharmacies, doctors’ offices, health insurers and others to prepare for the administration of boosters. By planning now, we will be able to quickly get booster shots into the arms of eligible Americans once approved. Implementation of this plan depends on authorization of boosters by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommendations by the CDC’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). As soon as authorizations are given, the Administration will be prepared to offer booster shots, starting the week of September 20, 2021.

Keeping Schools Open

A top priority for the Biden Administration since Day One has been to reopen schools safely and keep them open. The Administration has taken significant actions to get our kids back in the classroom, including providing $130 billion in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to help schools reopen, accelerate students’ academic growth, address inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, allow local school districts to implement CDC-recommended Covid-19 prevention strategies, and support student and educators’ social, emotional, and mental health needs.

• Require staff in Head Start programs, Department of Defense schools, and Bureau of Indian Education-operated schools to be vaccinated
• Call on all states to adopt vaccine requirements for all school employees
• Provide additional funding to school districts for safe school reopening, including backfilling salaries and other funding withheld by states for implementing Covid safety measures
• Use the Department of Education’s full legal authority to protect students’ access to in-person instruction
• Get students and staff tested regularly
• Provide every resource to the FDA to support timely review of vaccines for individuals under the age of 12

This initiative will take the right steps to prevent transmission—including getting all staff and eligible students vaccinated, implementing universal indoor masking, maintaining physical distancing, improving ventilation, and performing regular screening testing for students and school staff.

For those adolescents aged 12 and above who are eligible for vaccination, the most important step parents can take is to get them vaccinated. To date, over half of the nation’s adolescents have been vaccinated. For those too young to be vaccinated, it is especially critical that they are surrounded by vaccinated people and mask in public indoor spaces, including schools.

The FDA is currently undergoing a process to evaluate a vaccine for children under the age of 12, and under the president’s plan, the Administration will do whatever it takes to support those efforts, while continuing to respect and defer to the scientific decision-making of the agency.

Improving Care for Those With Covid-19

As we continue to battle the Delta surge, the President’s plan will continue to send response teams to states that request them and take additional actions to accelerate this work.

As the Biden Administration works to reduce cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, they will maintain focus on treating people infected with Covid-19—and helping hard-hit health care systems in the most impacted areas.

In early July, the Administration launched “Surge Response Teams” to help states experiencing case increases. Since then, the Administration has worked with 18 states, deployed nearly 1,000 personnel, including hundreds of EMTs, nurses, and doctors on the ground, to provide emergency medical care; surged hundreds of ventilators, ambulances, and other critical assets to support strained health care systems; stood up dozens of new, free testing sites; and assisted with local outbreak investigations.

Increasing Support for Covid-Burdened Hospitals

The president’s plan will provide additional support for hospitals facing capacity issues. The Department of Defense is announcing a commitment to double the number of DOD teams of clinicians deployed to support hospitals battling a surge in Covid-19 cases. These clinicians will be available for mission assignment through FEMA’s response across surge states.

Get life-saving monoclonal antibody treatment to those who need it. The United States government will increase the average weekly pace of shipments of free monoclonal antibody treatment to states by a further 50% in September and continue to accelerate the federal government’s efforts to deliver lifesaving Covid-19 treatment.

Expand the pool of health care professionals providing treatment by deploying federal monoclonal antibody strike teams. To ensure that more patients can access these lifesaving Covid-19 therapeutics, the Administration’s Covid-19 surge response effort will launch monoclonal antibody strike teams to deploy clinical personnel through HHS, FEMA, and DOD to help hospitals and health systems stand up the delivery of this key treatment option.

HHS will also take action to amend the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act declaration to allow more providers, including pharmacists, to administer this treatment. These actions will ensure that more patients receive lifesaving treatments if they are infected or exposed to Covid-19.

The strategy outlined here is domestic focused. In the weeks ahead, the president will announce additional steps to build on the progress the Administration has made to combat this pandemic globally.

Protecting Our Economic Recovery

America is getting back to work. There has been historic job growth—more than 4 million jobs created—with 750,000 jobs created on average per month over the last three months. Despite the challenges posed by the Delta variant, the economy created 235,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since before the pandemic. More than 70% of Americans say that now is a good time to find a quality job, up from less than 30% this time last year.

The US is the only major economy that has now exceeded its pre-pandemic growth projections, and independent forecasters believe America will this year reach the highest levels of growth in decades. The policies outlined throughout this plan will ensure that we do not return to lockdowns and shutdowns.

Additionally, there will be new support to small businesses as they continue to weather the surge caused by the Delta variant. Supporting small businesses is critical to our economic growth, since they create two-thirds of net new jobs and employ nearly half of America’s private workforce. These reforms include:

• New support for small businesses impacted by Covid-19
• Help for more than 150,000 small businesses by strengthening the covid Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which provides long-term, low-cost loans. The improvements will allow more business to get greater and more flexible support from the $150 billion in loanable funds still available in the program.
• Streamlining the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness process
• Launching the Community Navigator Program to connect small businesses to the help they need
• $100 million in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding to establish a new SBA Community Navigator program, which will deploy trusted community partners in underserved communities to better connect business owners to federal, state, and local resources. Community navigators will work with small business owners every step of the way to ensure that they are able to access the help that they need.

The SBA will complete the competitive review process to select Community Navigators and put them to work in underserved communities this Fall.

As it is released, The Urban News will provide the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.