Biden Covid advisers say transition delay hurts pandemic prep beyond vaccines
Biden Covid advisers say transition delay hurts pandemic prep beyond vaccines
The transition team is unable to consult with federal health officials on available hospital beds and the status of the National Strategic Stockpile.
By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
11/17/2020 05:44 PM EST
The leaders of President-elect Joe Bidens coronavirus advisory board said Tuesday the Trump administrations continued refusal to allow the transition to move forward is hurting their preparedness planning on multiple fronts, from addressing mask shortages to recommending targeted closures in hot spots and laying the groundwork to distribute prospective vaccines.
The transition team is unable to consult with federal health officials or access real-time data on available hospital beds, the status of the National Strategic Stockpile and therapeutics, among other things. For now, they said that's forcing them to rely on piecemeal data from state and local officials and public sources like the Covid Tracking Project.
Not only do we need cooperation in order to ensure that we have a good vaccine delivery plan we really need it across the board, said Vivek Murthy, one of the co-chairs of the advisory board. That cooperation will impact how effective we are at closing the testing gap, ensuring that hospitals and doctors and nurses have enough protective equipment like masks and gloves and make sure we have enough syringes and swabs to proceed with a vaccination campaign.
more...
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/17/covid-biden-transition-delay-pandemic-prep-437147