Biden adviser faults lack of cooperation
Yale prof fears more virus deaths without administration action
NEW HAVEN — Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith has been advising Joe Biden since August on the national response needed to battle the coronavirus pandemic, but says the lack of cooperation from the Trump administration has hamstrung efforts to form a national strategy.
Biden “went as far as to say that people are going to die” because money for the transition has not been released. “That’s the gravity of what we’re seeing,” she said.
From providing PPE to testing, treatment
and distributing a vaccine, “there’s a lot to do and … we don’t especially now have a moment to spare,” NunezSmith said. “And so each day that passes without a coordinated federal response is very worrisome as we’re heading into a dark winter here, potentially.”
As an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine and founding director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center, she is concerned that everyone, no matter what their racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic status, receives adequate health care.
As co-chairwoman of the BidenHarris administration’s coronavirus advisory group, she will bring that perspective in creating a strategy to reduce the illnesses and deaths from COVID-19 as cases spike this winter.
But Nunez-Smith doesn’t let the small stuff get by.
Among her priorities is making sure the new administration draws on its resources to provide personal protective equipment for the front-liners in health care, including those who serve food and keep hospitals sanitized.
“I did a few briefings for the candidates beginning in, I think, around mid-August,” she said Wednesday in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media.
“So I certainly had a chance to talk with them about some of the issues that are of high priority and important to me, particularly around issues of equity and the disproportionate impact we’re seeing, both in terms of health and economic impact in communities of color and other communities,” Nunez-Smith said.
For Nunez-Smith, the task is saving lives and keeping people well, not battling to get money released from federal agencies because President Donald Trump has not conceded the election.
“I’m not a politician; I’m just a faculty member at Yale,” she said. “This is an issue of science. … This is very bizarre for me. I don’t know how to tell my children about this.”
She and her husband have an 11year-old and 7-year-old twins. “They go to school every day and they learn lessons of cooperation,” she said.
But Nunez-Smith said a COVID strategy will be well along by the time Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in Jan. 20.
“I think that’s really important for the public to understand, that the advisory board is in no way starting from zero,” she said. “There are … many with prior federal government experience and service, teams of people who are working to be sure that the Biden-Harris administration is ready to go on Day One.”
A national strategy to battle the pandemic will require work in many areas at once, “because with COVID-19, it’s always an ‘and,’ not an ‘or.’”
She said progress by Pfizer and Moderna in developing vaccines is encouraging, but “we know that it’s still many months away to realize the promise of vaccination at a societal level. We have to think about the time it takes to scale up on production, and then the distribution itself is going to be a logistical and operational lift.”
She said among the first actions Biden needs to take is to use the Defense Production Act to ensure PPE will not run short. She said she is concerned for “my colleagues and friends who are there every day: the doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, the social workers, the physical therapists, the folks who are keeping those rooms clean and who are prepping food for the patients and all the staff.
“And so the conversation about something like PPE for me is not abstract in the least. We are seeing increases in the number of health care workers who are contracting the virus who are getting sick, some seriously. So that is certainly one that I keep at top of mind,” she said.
Earlier Wednesday, Nunez-Smith had joined Biden in a conversation with front-line health care workers and pledged to support them, including financially, so they are able to care for family members who fall ill, and themselves if they must miss work.
“President-elect Biden listened very closely as people described some of these challenges and committed to saying, we’re going to make sure that we can keep people economically whole when we make these kinds of guidances and advice,” she said.
In her work at the Yale medical school, as well as the Yale School of Public Health, Nunez-Smith has made it a priority to involve Black and brown communities in developing research. “I always lead with partnership. It will always make the work better,” she said.
While the campaign and transition team have been “centering on equity,” she will keep that value in sharp focus.
“I very much see myself joining and bringing up perspective as one of many advisory board members who see the need for us to be sure that there is a pathway to recovery for everyone, and that we acknowledge what I refer to as the grief gap,” Nunez-Smith said. “Close to 50 percent of people of color in this country have lost somebody to COVID-19, very sadly.”
She said she will also bring the knowledge and experience of her Yale colleagues to the advisory board’s work, and that Biden wants to hear different perspectives.
“I often say that one of the reasons why I could get to yes so quickly is because I have that bench of Yale behind me,” she said. “I mean, the deep expertise that is there across all the schools.”
Her colleagues “have all promised to answer the phone when I call with questions and for help. I really appreciate that,” she said.
Nunez-Smith said she will bring diverse points of view to the table.
“I do think that’s what I’m supposed to do. I mean, that’s what the president-elect has asked us to do,” she said. “He wants to get that diversity in perspective. He wants to hear differing opinions. … Another reason why I could say yes is because I know that that is his leadership style. He doesn’t want ‘yes’ people around him. He really wants folks who will bring their knowledge to bear, help inform his decisions.”
The most important work, she said, must be for everyone to remain vigilant and follow safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The holidays will be difficult, but it is more important to stay safe, she said.
“People I think can get lulled into this notion of 6 feet [apart], but really being inside with others is very high risk,” she said. “So you have to minimize particularly indoor contacts outside of your household. You have to keep those bubbles extremely tight.”
She said her family wears masks inside the house and eats at a distance, communicating room to room by phone.
“We will have only the members of our household at our Thanksgiving table, and we do so really in a pay-itforward way because, in doing so, we hope that we will be able to celebrate many more Thanksgiving together as a family,” she said.
Students returning from college should consider quarantining outside their homes if there are vulnerable family members, she said. “There are strategies … that we must take if we’re going to disrupt the path that we’re on right now, which is quite alarming.”