The Key Policy We Need to End the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Being Ignored

The goal is clearly articulated in President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address: Test to Treat. He challenged America to “get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.” He was no longer declaring independence from the virus, adding, “I cannot promise you a new variant won’t come. But I can promise you we’ll do everything within our power to be ready if it does.” The opportunity to fulfill that promise is here. Weeks later, in the shadow of the BA.2 variant, the country is still averaging an unacceptable 600 daily COVID-19 deaths, 1,500 new hospitalizations, and 2,000 patients in the ICU. This is a major impediment to a safe return to normal lives. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The good news is this challenge can be met head-on by redeploying our existing formidable public health and medical arsenal. With vaccination rates hitting a wall and boosters plateauing in effectiveness, leaning on new highly-effective oral treatments is the single most critical strategic step to allow society to return to a safe new normal. With early treatment of those who get sick and continuing to focus on decreasing transmission, we can sustainably tip the pandemic scales in our favor. With a federal initiative the scale of our vaccination effort, our conservative estimate is that we could achieve at least a 50 percent sustained decrease in both national mortality and hospitalizations. Ensuring availability of treatment for all hi...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news