As states across the country continue to grapple with the effects of a deadly polar vortex, Biden senior health officials are concerned that the day-long emergency will also lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks.
In recent days, senior government officials have been working to muster a federal response to the winter emergency, primarily in Texas, but also in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and other northwestern and southern states. As part of that response, the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinated the shipment of 60 generators, meals, blankets, water, diesel, and other life-saving supplies to Texas. President Joe Biden has approved emergency declarations in several states and has personally spoken with dozens of local and state officials in Texas to see what more could be done to help those in need.
In addition to assessing and addressing the obvious risks associated with no power, water, or access to reliable healthcare, government officials are working on the full extent of the COVID-19 problems caused by the storm, including vaccination sites more than six countries have been closed. states and the delay in the shipment of nearly 6 million doses of vaccine. Officials say their biggest fear is that increased transmission between people gathering indoors to find heat will spike new cases at a time when vaccination in the state is slowing due to weather conditions. The state planned to drastically expand vaccination before the storm hit by setting up a massive vaccination site in partnership with Pentagon and FEMA officials. The staff assigned to help set up the site were delayed reporting to Texas because of the snow.
“Look at the patterns of hospital admissions and deaths from disease. They really went in the right direction dramatically. I just hope we bounce back and I think we will, ”said Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, in an interview on Friday. “This is a disappointment. We need to keep doing what we can – doing the same things we’ve done that we know works. I know, it’s hard to do that. When you are not in your house because the pipes have blown out, you and your family will freeze and you may have to go to the shelter. Obviously, this is not the optimal way to prevent the spread of disease. But hopefully that will be remedied soon. “
Officials are also concerned that the situation on the ground, especially the lack of water and power in hospitals, especially in rural communities, will lead to the deaths of those already seeking care for the virus. A senior Biden official said there is no reliable way to track COVID-19 cases and deaths in real time, but they expect the Texas Health Department to see both COVID-19-related deaths and other fatalities from the storm. will report in the coming weeks. .
“It can take weeks, sometimes months, for these deaths to reach the federal government database,” said a senior Biden official. “But we will likely see a lot of hypothermia and carbon monoxide deaths, as well as deaths related to COVID. The question will be whether those COVID deaths occurred because of a lack of power or for reasons that can be explained. “
Concerns about transmission come at a time when the Biden government is working overtime to control the spread of COVID-19, in part by stepping up vaccination. More than 73 million doses have been sent and about 58 million administered. And Biden’s government recently signed more deals to keep doses flowing faster in the coming months. But the emergence of new, deadlier variants has complicated that effort, although there is some evidence that vaccines will still protect against them. It has been forced to double down on health officials in calling for Americans to more strictly adhere to public health guidelines – the same ones officials have been pushing for more than a year – as a way to reduce transmission.
“The continued proliferation of more transferable variants could jeopardize the progress we’ve made over the past month … if we let our guard down,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a press conference on Wednesday. . “We are not where we believe that the current vaccination level is driving the current disease level down. We believe that much of the increase in illnesses has been related to holidays, related to travel. We get rid of that. I would say very loudly that if you rely on our current vaccination level instead of other mitigation efforts to keep us down … we should not rest in that comfort. “
The winter storm emergency has left senior officials in the Biden administration concerned that they will again face an uphill battle to control the spread of the virus just as they begin to make progress. indoors, reducing the capacity of restaurants and fitness centers.
Fauci said the US is “by no means” under control of the pandemic – that community transmission numbers across the country are too high to reverse public health measures.
“If you get as many background infections as we had a month ago, when we got 300,000 new infections per day, it becomes nearly impossible to perform efficient identification, isolation and contact tracking,” Fauci said. “Once you get the baseline of infections really low, once you get more and more people vaccinated, you can gradually start to pull out of some of the strict public health measures. And by gradually withdrawing, I mean restaurants are starting to open, increasing the capacity with which they open … outdoor sports and allowing spectators to watch. We should do that gradually instead of saying, ‘okay, the numbers are down. Let’s just turn everything back on. ”
Fauci said this is exactly what happened during the Trump administration last summer – the country reopened before the broadcast was under control.
“There is a dynamism of outbreaks that when they speed up their way up, they have a self-spreading momentum of more cases and more cases,” he said. “When you get the momentum in the opposite direction, the same thing happens as fewer and fewer people get infected.”
But even if the US gets the transmission under control, there’s always a chance that new variants will emerge that pose an even greater threat, Fauci said.
“What I’m concerned about is that even if we get to a level of very, very significant baseline level suppression of the virus in the United States, and the virus is still raging in the rest of the world, the developing countries that don’t Having the capacity or the means to vaccinate, there will always be that persistent threat of new variants coming in, essentially bypassing the protection of the vaccines, “Fauci said.” It’s a global pandemic. And the only way to stop it. to fight is worldwide, otherwise it will remain an overhanging Sword of Damocles above us. “