COVID Action Group Urges Biden Administration to Implement More Aggressive COVID Response Strategy

The COVID Action Group has issued the following statement to President Biden and his COVID-19 task force sharing a proven COVID elimination strategy and response action plan: 

“Today, President Biden assumed office amid the worst public health crisis in generations. Now, we are urging the Biden-Harris Administration to tackle this crisis using a proven, science-based plan to eliminate the coronavirus from the United States. Federal-State collaboration and implementation will be essential to its success.

“The vaccine is a part of an exit strategy, but it is neither the only nor the fastest way to eliminate the virus. In the next 5 weeks, we must do the hard work: we must pause any unnecessary activity that would bring people into contact with others, rapidly identify cases and isolate them, and ensure support for those in need economically or otherwise. The America Rescue Plan can support those who need help to stay at home through this period.  

“We also need strong restrictions on international travel with quarantines to protect us from importing multiple new variants. While the current situation is severe, the new, more rapidly spreading variant from the UK that has arrived in the US, and others that will follow, will make it much worse unless we take these strong actions now. The narrative that these measures are harmful economically is false: the more rapidly we stop the virus the more rapidly our economy will recover. 

“By committing to strict elimination measures now, we can dramatically reduce the number of deaths, restore the capacity of our hospitals, decrease the impact on our economy, and return sooner to a better normal life with safe family occasions, and unrestricted economic activities including going to restaurants, sports events, and attending places of worship.”