USA TODAY International Edition
Biden’s orders won’t be easy, experts say
After a session of signing directives on Inauguration Day, President Joe Biden signed 10 more executive orders on Thursday, his first full day in office, as part of his administration’s nationwide strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Though some plans are contingent on the passage of the president’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID- 19 relief package, others will have an immediate impact on the nation’s daily response to the virus.
Overall, public health experts said, they are thrilled to see science driving a cohesive national strategy.
“It’s about time,” said Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean of Emory University School of Medicine. “We’re finally having federal leadership. ... This is actually what should have happened 400,000 deaths before.”
This is only the first step. Experts said these high- level directives will take time to become detailed actions.
“We have to start big picture and identify big problems, but implementing each of these is going to take a lot of work,” said Eric Toner, senior scholar
at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “There are going to be challenges.”
What will be the hardest to implement, and what will have the most impact on the coronavirus pandemic?
Federal face mask mandate
Wednesday, Biden signed an executive order requiring masks and social distancing guidelines on federal property for the next 100 days to prevent the spread of COVID- 19.
This won’t apply to many people as most Americans don’t spend much of their time in federal buildings or on federal land.
Biden extended the policy Thursday with another executive order requiring masks be worn in airports and certain modes of transportation such as planes, trains, maritime vessels and intercity buses.
That will have an immediate impact on the lives of Americans, because most airports don’t have firm policies on masks. Only airports in locations that have state or local mask requirements have the authority to cite, ticket or, in some cases, eject travelers who fail to comply.
Public health experts said face masks are an effective way to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Last fall, scientists said that if at least 95% of the population wore masks in public, it could save nearly 130,000 lives from the end of September 2020 through the end of February 2021, according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Del Rio said airlines have struggled to require passengers to wear masks on planes because there was no federal mandate.
Masks became a point of political contention in the previous administration, he said, but Americans must comply with federal law.
One major question remains: How will this be enforced?
“We have to figure out who’s going to enforce that,” Toner said. “Is it going to be TSA? The flight crews? What do you do if someone doesn’t comply?”
Reopening schools
Another executive order signed Thursday directs “a national strategy for safely reopening schools.” It includes requiring the Education and Health and Human Services departments to provide guidance on the safe reopening and operating of schools, child care providers and higher education institutions.
School reopening plans are a patchwork of in- person, virtual and hybrid classes that are different in each state and school district. More than half of U. S. students were enrolled in schools learning entirely virtually heading into the holiday break, according to Burbio, a company tracking schools’ COVID- 19 plans.
Toner said this is going to be one of the hardest policies to implement because not even public health experts have an idea on how this can be achieved.
“There isn’t a consensus among the experts about the right thing to do,” he said.
Health experts said masks, social distancing and practicing hand hygiene in schools will help lower risk of infection, but it has been up to schools to figure out how to put those recommendations into practice.
Cases among children remain lower than other age groups, but a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Jan. 13 found cases increasing since the summer.
More than 211,000 new child COVID- 19 cases were reported last week, the highest weekly increase since the pandemic began, according to a report released by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. As of Jan. 14, about 2.5 million children have been infected with COVID- 19.
The federal government has very little authority over schools.
Every state is different, but local governments, school boards, teacher unions and parent organizations could all stand in the way of implementing federal recommendations.
“They can rule on guidance, but it’s going to be up to the states and local school boards to follow that guidance,” Toner said.
Officials from teachers unions suggest it would take more than vaccines to get students in classrooms. Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said the vaccines are an important piece of the puzzle to get students in classrooms, but not the only piece.
She is “concerned that in the rush to get kids back in schools,” further relaxing of quarantine guidelines will lead to more cases in the state.
Another executive order Biden signed Thursday will restore full reimbursement to districts – up from 75% – to support safe school reopenings through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund.
Del Rio said this may determine whether or not schools decide to follow federal guidance on reopening.
“What do states respond to? States respond to something called money,” he said. “If there’s funding to help them open schools, they will open schools.”
100 million vaccines in 100 days
Biden promised to administer 100 million doses of the COVID- 19 vaccine in the first 100 days of his presidency, something Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, reiterated Thursday on NBC News’ “Today.”
“We said 100 million doses in the first 100 days, and we’re going to stick to that plan,” she said.
Biden laid out four priorities to do so in a plan introduced last week: allow more people to be vaccinated; create more places for people to get vaccinated; mobilize more medical teams; and increase supply.
Public health experts said that’s doable; in fact, it’s already being done.
Del Rio said the country administers 800,000 to 1 million doses a day. At this pace, the USA may achieve herd immunity by the fall.
As of Thursday, 35.9 million doses had been distributed to states, and 16.5 million had been administered, according to the CDC.
To vaccinate the majority of the population by the summer, the United States would have to ramp up vaccinations to 2 million to 3 million per day.
Other Biden orders include invoking the Defense Production Act to accelerate manufacturing and delivery of pandemic supplies, directing new studies to identify COVID- 19 treatments and establishing a COVID- 19 Health Equity Task Force.
Experts said the country may not see the impact of these orders right away.
“The rest of these are going to take more time and so their impact will depend on how long it takes to be implemented and where we are in the pandemic at that time,” Toner said.