Biden team sees signs of improvement in fight against COVID despite concern over variants

The Biden administration says it is seeing the first signs of improvement in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, even though officials say they are far from celebrating. Ever since Biden took office, the pace of vaccinations have accelerated and the rate of new coronavirus cases are dropping. The Biden administration has also inked new deals with existing vaccine suppliers and has promised the new vaccine candidates are still on the horizon. They have even managed to give states a clear estimate of how many vaccine doses they’ll receive. However, officials are aware that they are in a critical period. 

While speaking to CNN, Andy Slavitt, who is a senior adviser to the White House COVID-19 response team, called the pandemic a “daunting challenge” and added that he thinks it feels like they are making progress every day. The administration is aware of the depth of the hole they are digging out of but Slavitt said that in terms of what they have inherited, they are playing with the hand they have, and not the hand they wished they had.

"It is a daunting challenge. I think it feels like we're making progress every day," Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team told CNN.

Further, Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said that it is “remarkable” what the Biden administration has been able to do. Toner said that, however, these problems that are going to take months to solve. It is worth noting that the one item entirely outside the President’s control has been the emergence of the new variants in the United States. An administration official said that the new variants have shifted the pandemic into a “different ballgame”. 

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Officials concerned about new variants 

The official acknowledged that the variants are a “big threat” that will pose setbacks to even their best-laid response plans. Even top health officials have admitted that there is not enough vaccine to stay ahead of more transmissible strains like the one first identified in the UK. Rick Bright, a former US Department of Health and Human Services scientist, said that what concerns him the most about the variants is that the country does not have a national system in place as robust to be able to track these variants as they spread across the United States. Bright added that the emergence of new variants will translate into more deaths. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has turned to practically pleading with Americans to mask up, maintain their distance and get vaccinated as soon as they have the chance. Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a recent briefing, had also said that when a vaccine becomes available, get vaccinated. The top health expert further added, “You will be making a major step in a positive way to protecting the community”. It is worth mentioning that the United States is the worst-hit country due to the virus with over 27 million infected cases and nearly 465,000 deaths so far.

(Image: AP) 

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