Biden’s omicron plan promises 500 million free at-home tests
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On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced new actions to fight the omicron variant, including a promise to purchase 500 million at-home tests and distribute them for free to Americans beginning next month.
Omicron has quickly overtaken delta to become the predominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in the United States, making up roughly 73% of new cases as of Dec. 18, according to CDC tracking — up from 0.7% just two weeks earlier.
“While COVID-19 has been a tough adversary, we've shown that we're tougher,” Biden said during an address. “Tougher because we have the power of science and vaccines that prevent illness and save lives, and tougher because of our resolve.”
Experts have warned that omicron would spread fast, including CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, who said last week that cases would double every 2 days. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said previously that omicron “might” cause less severe disease than delta, although it is still too early to tell for sure.
What is sure is that there are still around 40 million eligible but unvaccinated people in the U.S., a senior administration official said ahead of Biden’s prepared speech on Tuesday. Data show that the unvaccinated are eight times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than the vaccinated, the official said.
“If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned,” Biden said. “You're at high risk of getting sick, and if you get sick, you're likely to spread it to others, including friends and family. The unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in hospital or even dying.”
People who are vaccinated have an even higher degree of protection against omicron if they have received a booster, early evidence has showed.
“Just the other day, former President Trump announced he had gotten his booster shot. It may be one of the few things he and I agree on,” Biden said.
According to the new plan, Americans will be able to order at-home tests from a government website to be delivered to their house for free. The plan also calls for the using the Defense Production Act to produce as many at-home tests as possible and for the establishment of federal testing sites, beginning in New York City this week.
Questions remain about who will end up getting tested, said Paul A. Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“I think the people who are most likely getting testing are people who care about their own health and care about the health of those with whom they come into contact. Those are likely vaccinated people,” Offit told Healio. “It will be interesting to know that, and I may be wrong. It could be that they are mostly people who are unvaccinated and just trying to figure out whether they have gotten sick or not”
Under the plan, an additional 1,000 troops will deploy to hospitals in need of medical personnel throughout the next 2 months. Six emergency response teams, each composed of at least 100 members, will be deployed to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont.
To increase vaccination and booster rates, FEMA is expected to begin pop-up vaccination clinics nationally, with five new mobile units opening in Washington and New Mexico on Tuesday.
The administration will also deploy federal vaccinators to 12 states, where they will help enable thousands of vaccination appointments in the coming weeks.
“We need to create an army of people who go out to these [unvaccinated] communities and try and answer their questions,” Offit said. “We have that in Philadelphia. I think that has to happen in all communities. Let's get out there and figure out how conservatives can talk to other conservatives about getting vaccinated.”
References:
CDC. COVID data tracker. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions. Accessed Dec. 21, 2021.
Perspective
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In general, the president’s plan does provide vital resources to help combat COVID-19. Most importantly, it addresses the acute need to augment hospital capacity with federal assets.
The plan also emphasizes the role of home testing. Home testing has been something that has never been deployed optimally throughout this pandemic, including during the Biden administration today. The increased availability of home tests will be very welcome. However, I do not expect to see an impact for several weeks and this type of testing program should have been in place long ago.
It is also crucial to try and get more people, especially high-risk individuals, vaccinated because it is the unvaccinated who are compromising hospital capacity. Also, there has been a lot of emphasis on boosters, but it is first and second doses that are much, much more critical.
Perspective
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The president’s plan has some laudable actions, most notably the provision of rapid diagnostic tests to help people ascertain whether they pose an infectious risk to friends and family in the coming weeks.
Unfortunately, this effort is coming too late to avert what is sure to be a huge wave of omicron cases related to gatherings over Christmas — which is a few days away. Most people who are traveling to gather with others are indeed already traveling.
We’ve known about omicron since the day before Thanksgiving, and news of its extremely high infectiousness became evident very quickly.
Why are we only now rolling this out? Why do we still have a travel ban in place for South Africa? Why are many centers facing a deluge of omicron cases without access to effective monoclonal antibody treatments, given that the sole active agent, sotrovimab, is unavailable in most areas?
Why has approval, distribution and guidelines for use of what appear to be effective oral therapies not been prioritized? We are really behind despite the history of the pandemic repeating itself in successive waves.
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The White House. Fact sheet: President Biden announces new actions to protect Americans and help communities and hospitals battle omicron. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/21/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-protect-americans-and-help-communities-and-hospitals-battle-omicron/. Accessed Dec. 21, 2021.
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