Biden's Plans for Covid-19

In his seven-point plan, the first point is to “ensure all Americans have access to regular, reliable, and free testing.” This statement means doubling the number of drive-through testing sites and investing in next-generation testing, including at-home tests and instant tests. Biden wants to create a Pandemic Testing Board similar to Roosevelt’s War Production Board which will aid in producing and distributing millions of tests nationwide. Along with this Board, he wants to “establish a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps” to conduct contact-tracing and protect high-risk groups. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s War Production Board, America was able to produce tanks, planes, uniforms, supplies, and more in record time.

The second point is to “fix personal protective equipment (PPE) problems for good.” Instead of leaving states, cities, tribes, and territories to solve their own issues, Biden wants to step in and use the Defense Production Act to increase the production of masks and other PPE so that the national supply exceeds the demand and stores, especially in the hardest hit areas, are stocked with these items. 

The third point in his plan is to “provide clear, consistent, evidence-based national guidance for how communities should navigate the pandemic — and the resources for schools, small businesses, and families to make it through.” Biden hopes to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with guidance in how Americans should social-distance including guidelines about which stores, restaurants, and other businesses should stay open or issue stay-at-home restrictions. He also wants to create a renewable fund for states and local governments to prevent budget shortfalls which could impact teachers and first responders. To help small businesses, he wants to provide “restart packages,” which would cover the costs for staying open safely with protective gear. 

The fourth point plans for “effective, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines.” Under this point, Biden plans to invest 25 billion dollars in vaccine manufacturing and distribution, to ensure that every American gets the vaccine for no cost. Further, scientists will be in charge of determining the safety of the vaccine and making clinical data public. 

Biden adds that we must “protect older Americans and others at high risk.” To do this, he wants to “establish a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force” to provide recommendations on the public health and economic responses in ethnic communities. The plan for creating the Nationwide Pandemic Dashboard is also in the works which will help Americans find out the true numbers of COVID-19 within their zip codes. In addition, Biden wants to “protect and strengthen Medicare” and social security, “ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment,” and “improve disaster preparedness and protect people with disabilities. . .”

The sixth point of Biden’s plan is to “Rebuild and expand [defenses]. . . to predict, prevent, and mitigate pandemic threats, including those coming from China.” His team will revive the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, restore America’s relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), restart U.S. Agency for International Development’s pathogen-tracking program (PREDICT), and “expand the number of CDC’s deployed disease detectives.”

The final point in Biden’s plan is to “implement mask mandates nationwide by working with governors and mayors. . .” Biden believes it is important for governors and local authorities to enforce mask-wearing outside the home in the presence of others.