Biden, health officials to lay out path out of Omicron winter

Jan 10, 2022

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Quick Fix

— It's a crucial week for the Biden administration's Covid response as top officials tell Capitol Hill and the public the plan for the months ahead.

— Some GOP governors are telling employers to ignore Biden's vaccine mandate until the Supreme Court issues a ruling on it.

— Chicago teachers square off with the city over Covid safety measures.

WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE — I'm Alice Miranda Ollstein, the Capitol Hill reporter for our stalwart health team, filling in for Adam and Sarah. Remember, D.C. has more than one restaurant, and they could use your support as we navigate a particularly cold and Covid-y stretch in the coming weeks. Send stories, tips and your favorite small businesses to patronize to aollstein@politico.com.

A message from PhRMA:

Did you know more than half of every dollar spent on medicines goes to someone who doesn't make them? There's a long line of middlemen, like PBMs and insurers, collecting a significant portion of what you pay for medicine. The share of total spending for brand medicines received by the supply chain and other stakeholders increased from 33% in 2013 to 50.5% in 2020. Learn more.

Driving the Day

CRUCIAL WEEK FOR BIDEN ADMIN'S PANDEMIC RESPONSE — As it takes hits for its handling of the newly resurging Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration will go before Congress and the public this week to defend its actions, answer questions and lay out the path forward.

The start of the pandemic's third year hasn't been bright. Cases are at record highs. Vaccination rates have barely budged. Hospitals are stretched to the breaking point. Officials are rationing an inadequate supply of tests. Infections are exacerbating existing staffing shortages in several key industries.

As the federal government vows to deliver relief and clear up muddled messaging, conservatives are slamming the administration vaccine mandates while progressives say more needs to be done.

What to watch:

Tuesday: Top Biden health officials will testify before the Senate HELP Committee about the administration's plans for handling Omicron and any other Covid-19 variants that might emerge in the future. Aside from the now-routine sparring between the NIH's Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the hearing is expected to include tough questions for CDC Director Rochelle Walensky about her agency's shifting guidance on quarantine and isolation.

Walensky has also come under fire in recent days from disability rights advocates for saying she finds it "encouraging" that deaths from Omicron have largely happened among people with multiple comorbidities.

Walensky attempted a clean-up Sunday night, posting on Twitter that "CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, incl. those w/ chronic health conditions, disabilities & older adults."

Thursday: President Joe Biden will make a speech on his administration's "whole-of-government COVID-19 surge response."

With arguably his strongest Covid control measure — twin vaccine mandates for health care workers and large businesses — in the hands of a highly skeptical Supreme Court, the president will have to convince a fatigued and frustrated public to take the steps needed to bring the ever-evolving pandemic back under control.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

In the States

CHICAGO SHOWDOWN OVER COVID PROTECTIONS IN SCHOOLS REACHES CRISIS POINT — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot railed against the city's teacher's union Sunday following a strike authorization vote that may shutter schools this week but remained hopeful a deal can still be reached, POLITICO's Jordan Wolman reports.

Lightfoot accused teachers of staging an "illegal walkout," saying on NBC's Meet the Press: "They abandoned their posts, and they abandoned kids and their families."

Teachers are demanding heightened Covid safety measures as cases spike in the city, saying students should learn remotely until the city can provide more frequent testing, better ventilation and on-campus vaccine clinics.

ARKANSAS GOV: EMPLOYERS CAN IGNORE BIDEN'S VAX MANDATE UNTIL SCOTUS RULES — Arkansas' Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told CNN on Sunday he's advising businesses in his state not to comply with the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test mandate for companies with 100 or more employees, saying they should hold off until the Supreme Court weighs in on the rule's constitutionality.

"This mandate of OSHA, the federal government, needs to be struck down," Hutchinson said. "And that's why we're fighting against it. And I expect the Supreme Court, hopefully, to rule against the Biden administration on that oppressive vaccine mandate."

Context: Arkansas has seen four consecutive days of record new Covid-19 cases, with 8,171 new cases reported by the state on Saturday.

40 NEW YORK HOSPITALS HALT NON-URGENT PROCEDURES AMID COVID SURGE — The New York State Department of Health announced over the weekend that 40 hospitals across the state have to stop nonessential, nonurgent elective procedures for at least two weeks as they're inundated with Covid patients.

All hospitals in the Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes, and Central New York are under the new restrictions in addition to several individual hospitals in other parts of the state.

"We cannot return to the early months of the pandemic when hospitals were overwhelmed," said the state's acting health commissioner, Mary T. Bassett, who encouraged New Yorkers to get vaccinated and boosted to ease the strain on providers.

A message from PhRMA:

Coronavirus

JAPAN, U.S. AGREE TO KEEP SOLDIERS ON BASE TO CURB COVID SPREAD — U.S. and Japanese officials have reached a tentative joint agreement to keep roughly 55,000 American soldiers confined to their military bases in the country except in cases of emergency, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

What spurred the lockdown?

— Cases in Japan are at a four-month high, and while more than 80 percent of the country is fully vaccinated, less than 1 percent have received boosters, making the population vulnerable to the Omicron variant.

— The spike has been blamed on the U.S. military because cases have risen the most in areas around the bases.

THOUSANDS PROTEST COVID RESTRICTIONS IN BRUSSELS — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Brussels on Sunday to oppose coronavirus restrictions, even though the Belgian government decided to hold off on new measures this past week, POLITICO Europe's Samuel Stolton reports.

The demonstrators demanded, among other measures, that leaders scrap the COVID certificate system that restricts entry to bars, restaurants and sport and fitness centers.

Even as the government backed away from imposing new restrictions, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo warned Sunday that "the coming weeks will be difficult" and anticipated seeing new record levels of infections.

"The numbers are on the rise and the situation will get worse before it gets better," he said.

NETHERLANDS STRUGGLES TO LIFT OMICRON LOCKDOWN — The Netherlands was the first European country toreimplement a lockdown in December when Omicron began to surge, but it's unlikely to be the first to lift restrictions, POLITICO Europe's Lukas Kotkamp reports.

Leaders in the country worry they lifted restrictions in 2021 prematurely and didn't adequately promote mitigation measures like mask-wearing and ventilation and are wary of committing the same mistake again.

While 86 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated and 38 percent of adults have received a booster shot, hospitals are still overwhelmed by cases.

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What We're Reading

Scientists are learning from the skin of hedgehogs that antibiotic-resistant bacteria may have evolved long before antibiotic drugs were invented, reports The New York Times.

The CDC has found that a Covid-19 infection substantially increases diabetes risk in children, Kristen Monaco reports for MedPage Today.

The Biden administration is shipping states all three monoclonal antibody treatments even though two haven't proven effective against the Omicron variant, Lenny Bernstein, Laurie McGinley and Katie Shepherd write for The Washington Post.

Bruce Harrison reports for Channel TMJ4 that Milwaukee is distributing half a million N95 respirators in hopes of slowing Omicron's spread.

A message from PhRMA:

Did you know that PBMs, hospitals, the government, insurers, and others received a larger share of total spending on medicines than biopharmaceutical companies? That's right, more than half of spending on brand medicines goes to someone who doesn't make them. Let's fix the system the right way and ensure more of the savings go to patients, not middlemen. Read the new report.