What President Biden Should Say About Omicron, but Won’t

Latest

video still of vaccination site worker talking to a person
Video Still, WSJ

Monday, December 20, 2021

President Biden will address the nation on Tuesday after the CDC announced Monday that the COVID Omicron variant now accounts for 73% of all infections, with 133,000 infections and 1,300 deaths per day, a 21% & 9% increase respectively in the last 2 weeks.

First, the President should explain that COVID fully vaccinated includes boosters, not 1 or 2 shots.

Using his authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA), President Biden should dramatically increase the making of both high quality N95/KN95 masks and COVID rapid tests both of which will be provided free to all public schools, public workplaces for weekly testing, required in all federal agencies. Free weekly testing should also be available at all vaccine sites and free home tests for everyone should be given out daily at public libraries and post offices.

He should explain that only N95/KN95 masks will protect people from COVID, not cloth or other types of masks.

The President should require all federal agencies and all transportation under federal authority, including airports, airplanes, Amtrak, interstate buses, ports, ships to immediately implement NYC like Vaccination Requirements for Indoor Public Activities that require all people inside to be fully vaccinated, both workers and the public, and to wear high quality N95 or KN95 masks.

If the President listens to public health experts he will announce a massive emergency increase in federal funding to state and local public health departments and public schools to vaccinate students where they go to school, workers in the workplace, door to door vaccines, and open mass vaccination sites in park fieldhouses, libraries, post offices and religious institutions and to significantly increase state public health laboratories staff and COVID testing capacity.

The President  should declare the pandemic a national security threat and  require both Moderna & Pfizer to sign M-RNA COVID Vaccine technology transfer contracts with dozens of well-qualified laboratories in Africa, Asia and Latin America to produce the vaccines where they are most needed, as Lawrence O. Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University, stated earlier this year.

Finally, the President must send $Billions in international aid to African, Asian and Latin American countries to rebuild their public health systems to deliver COVID vaccine into the arms of the hundreds of millions who have been denied access to it by the rich countries and companies they financed for private vaccine development and profits in the global north.

None Of Us Are Safe until ALL Of Us Are Safe!

+ Articles by this author

The People’s Tribune opens its pages to voices of the movement for change. Our articles are written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Articles entitled “From the Editors” reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: peoplestribune.orgPlease donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement for change. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff. The People’s Tribune is a 501C4 organization.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Cuba’s Education in Crisis: Closures at the University of Havana

Young Cubans could lose the promise of a free, universal education, and consequences of the Cuban blockade stretch to communities around the world that have long depended on Cuban-trained doctors and teachers.

When Your Car Isn’t the Only Thing Being Tracked

A new generation of surveillance technology promises to do far more than read a license plate. II can detect and correlate the electronic signals constantly emitted by devices traveling with your vehicle.

Voting Rights Movement Rises; Join August March on Washington

With the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, everyone's right to vote is under attack. The movement to defend the vote is gathering steam. A march on Washington to defend the vote is planned for Aug. 28, 2026.

All This Artificial Intelligence, Why Aren’t Things Better?

"Who needs to go to Mars when we can re-green and re-nourish this planet" asks the author. "We need liberty and happiness for all, not indexes of GDP or stock markets . . . It’s about aligning the technical/intelligence capacity to meet the full needs of people and the planet.”

Anger Mounts in Mississippi Over Police Killing of 1-Year-Old Kohen Wiley

Law enforcement officers, wearing gas masks, lined up under Walmart's side entrance, unleashing tear gas on the crowd that had gathered to protest the police killing of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley.

More from the People's Tribune