Former Biden transition advisors call for change in COVID-19 strategy

Several health advisers to President Biden’s transition team are calling on the administration to revamp its COVID-19 pandemic strategy and set clear goals for what the “new normal” of living with the virus will look like.

In three separate op-eds published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the authors recommended dozens of strategies that go above and beyond what the Biden administration is currently doing. 

The authors include Luciana Borio, a former acting chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration; Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and University of Pennsylvania professor; Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota; and Rick Bright of the Rockefeller Foundation. 

The authors made clear that COVID-19 is not endemic yet, and that the U.S. is far from that point. But they said the administration needs to clearly communicate the current goals and strategies, instead of shifting from one crisis to another.

For instance, they said it was shortsighted for Biden to declare last summer that the U.S. has “gained the upper hand against this virus."

“By September 2021, the Delta variant proved these steps to be premature, and by late November, the Omicron variant created concern about a perpetual state of emergency,” they wrote. “In delineating a national strategy, humility is essential.”

Neither COVID-19 vaccination nor infection appear to confer lifelong immunity, and the current vaccines do not offer protection against infection either. The goal for the “new normal” with COVID-19 does not include eradication or elimination, they wrote. ...