The rescue plan: Leadership we need now

The light at the end of the dark COVID-19 tunnel finally might be approaching — that’s the welcome conclusion from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, ever-focused on mitigating the pandemic.

Even so, it will take incredible attention to detail to ensure the glow ahead isn’t a train barreling down on us rather than light shining the way to a better future.

The next few weeks are critical for the United States in what, to date, has been our nation’s colossal failure to fight back against a pandemic that is costing 4,000 American lives a day.

But President-elect Joe Biden made it clear last week in a speech outlining how he would fight the coronavirus and boost the economy that come Wednesday, a new sheriff is in charge.

The effort to beat the pandemic will be led by the federal government. No more leaving it up to the states without support and structure. No more contradictory messages. No more ignoring science and public health guidelines.

First up is expanding vaccination access. Toward that end, Biden said he will put the full resources of the federal government behind making vaccines widely available in all corners of the country. The shots have to make it into people’s arms.

That’s not happening now, at least not quickly enough, and it’s a potentially deadly outcome considering a new surge in the virus. On Friday, we learned an expected reserve of vaccines slated to be released to states does not exist. That likely will slow the anticipated expansion of vaccines and is another stumble in what has been a botched rollout.

Slowing COVID-19 infections without enough vaccinations delivered to provide herd immunity means relying on the usual tools to delay the spread of the coronavirus: wearing masks, avoiding crowds, staying apart, washing hands, staying home.

That’s essential right now, considering new strains are emerging that appear to be more contagious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday a highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom is spreading rapidly, and is likely to become the dominant U.S. strain — unless we double down to slow the spread.

Using effective public health strategies will provide the vaccination time to provide precious immunity from the coronavirus. We cannot overstate the urgency of this moment. Delay the spread. Ramp up vaccinations.

In New Mexico, the state has developed a sign-up tool to register shot seekers. Health care workers and people who reside in congregate-living settings and now the elderly, plus other essential workers, are being inoculated. On Friday, the promised vaccination dashboard debuted. With a glance, people can see how many vaccinations have been delivered and how many people have signed up. (The dashboard can be found at cvvaccine.nmhealth.org/public-dashboard.html).

The word from Biden in introducing what he’s calling the American Rescue Plan is reassuring — it’s part stimulus but focuses on controlling the pandemic. The package also contains a proposed increase to the federal minimum wage, increasing and continuing the weekly federal unemployment benefit and extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until the end of September.

There’s also $350 billion in assistance for tribal, local and state governments — a recognition the pandemic has flattened tax revenues across the nation.

His package would include $20 billion for expanding vaccinations, along with more than $50 billion for more testing and $170 billion to ensure schools can open. All told, it adds up to almost $2 trillion — expensive, yes, but far less costly to lives and livelihoods than doing nothing.

Biden understands robust federal leadership is essential to containing the pandemic.

The lack of such understanding since the pandemic turned the world upside down has cost lives and damaged our collective well-being. Now, the CDC is predicting that in the remaining weeks of January, some 90,000 additional people will die of COVID-19.

We must reduce those numbers, slow the spread and — finally — work as a country united against a common foe. That’s the way to the light.