Biden’s multi-pronged approach puts a heavy emphasis on expanding vaccinations to the remaining Americans who have resisted getting shots, and to provide boosters to the now-eligible population of all adults. He’s also changing rules on international travel to require tests closer to arrival in the United States.
But he is stopping short of imposing shutdowns on schools or businesses, ruling them out as he works to maintain the country’s economic recovery.
“It doesn’t involve shutdowns or lockdowns, but widespread vaccinations, and boosters, and testing and a lot more,” Biden said at the start of his remarks.
He acknowledged a likely rise in cases over the coming weeks, as weather turns colder in much of the country and people begin to gather more indoors. He noted his proposed mandate for vaccinations among large employers is currently tied up in court, forestalling any new mandates in his winter strategy.
And he lamented the politicization of the anti-Covid measures that are recommended by public health experts, saying it was a “sad, sad commentary” that steps like mask wearing and vaccinations had become subject to ugly divisiveness.
Biden’s speech, delivered from the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, came as cases of the new Omicron variant begin surfacing in the United States and countries around the world impose tight new restrictions on travel and activity.
Biden touted actions like restrictions on travel from southern Africa that he said gave his administration time to prepare, and declared he would combat the new variant “with science and speed, not chaos and confusion.”
But he said it was inevitable that cases would arise in the United States, preparing Americans for the continued presence of Covid for the foreseeable future.
“Experts say that Covid-19 cases will continue to rise in the weeks ahead and this winter,” he said. “So we need to be ready.”
Biden was speaking the day after officials confirmed the first recorded case of the Omicron variant in the United States, in California. A second case was discovered in Minnesota on Thursday.
Any foreign national who travels to the US must be fully vaccinated, though there remains no vaccination requirement for American citizens traveling via air, either globally or domestically.
The administration also unveiled steps aimed at increasing vaccination rates among children in an effort to keep schools open and protect children ages 5 and up from contracting Covid-19.
“To date, we have already vaccinated over 4 million 5- to 11-year-olds and 15 million adolescents. Vaccinating our kids protects them, keeps schools open, and protects everyone around them,” the White House detailed in a fact sheet shared with reporters Wednesday.
As part of those efforts, the administration will launch “family vaccination clinics” aimed at offering vaccines and boosters for entire families at once, with the Health Resources and Services Administration offering “Family Vaccination Days” at participating community health centers across the country and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offering mobile vaccination clinics to reach hard-to-reach communities.
The administration is also issued a “Safe School Checklist” so schools can safely encourage vaccination and booster efforts and avoid outbreaks in schools through new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on quarantining and testing.
Biden announced further actions to export vaccines, including 200 million more doses in the next 100 days, accelerating delivery to high-risk countries, while ramping up vaccine manufacturing to increase global production capacity.
The President’s announcement also detailed new steps to increase Covid testing, including requiring private insurers reimburse the costs of at-home tests for more than 150 million Americans. In addition, community sites like health centers and rural clinics will offer free at-home tests for those not covered by private insurance, doubling a September pledge to offer 25 million free tests to community sites to 50 million tests.
The President announced more than 60 winter Covid emergency response team deployments available to states to combat outbreaks and rising Covid-19 cases nationally, expanding a program from the summer and fall.
“Response teams have helped 27 states and two territories respond to the Delta surge by addressing critical needs on the ground,” the senior administration official told reporters Wednesday.
“To date, we have deployed over 2,000 personnel, surged over 3,200 ventilators and other supplies, and shipped over 2.3 million courses of the lifesaving monoclonal antibody treatments. As we face the new variants and rising cases during the winter months tomorrow, the President will renew the federal government’s commitment help with surges and help our states,” the official added.
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