Biden preps pandemic exit plan

Mar 02, 2022

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With David Lim, Adam Cancryn and Katherine Ellen Foley

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QUICK FIX

— Covid, nursing homes, mental health care and abortion: Biden cited it all in a wide-ranging speech last night.

— More Covid tests are incoming as the administration prepares a new wave of free deliveries.

— Today: An exit roadmap is in store, after weeks of deliberation between administration officials and outside advisers.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — What struck you about Biden's speech last night? Send takes and tips to sowermohle@politico.com.

A message from PhRMA:

From out-of-pocket costs, to deductibles, to hospital bills – the most vulnerable patients face challenges. 3 in 10 Americans who have insurance still face a financial barrier to care. We need to make the cost of medicine more predictable and affordable. Learn more.

Driving the Day

THE SPEECH THAT MENTIONED IT ALL — President Joe Biden on Tuesday night talked Covid-19 response, drug pricing, nursing homes, cancer innovations, abortion rights, veterans' health, transgender care, the opioid crisis, mental health treatment and childcare. And I probably missed something.

In a State of the Union address meant to be dominated by the grim reality of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Biden nevertheless highlighted a slew of health care goals he aspires to achieve amid the pandemic and Ukraine invasion. Several — like the cautious optimism on Covid-19 and his call for better nursing home standards — were expected.

Others, namely his deeply personal call to investigate veterans' health risks from burn pits at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, were new initiatives peppered into a speech that stayed optimistic despite the drab heath and national security realities surrounding it.

The highlights:

"We must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they're conducting on our children for profit." That's a battle cry against tech companies, but the administration has been sparse on details of enforcement and regulation. The White House on Tuesday released a mental health plan that needs money — and Congress — to launch in full.

"We pay more for the same drug produced by the same company than any other country in the world." Sound familiar? Former President Donald Trump said the same, but each president is taking markedly different approaches to the fight. Biden rallied Tuesday for government negotiation while avoiding the name of the stagnant Build Back Better Act.

"If you are immunocompromised or have some other vulnerability, we have treatments and free high-quality masks." This sentiment already isn't playing well among chronically ill people on edge about the CDC's changed metrics, which shift most of the country to mask-free guidance.

"As Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes, quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up." This may be one of the most universal aspects of the president's health initiatives after the devastating toll coronavirus took on nursing homes these past two years. But his accountability initiative needs funding, and lawmakers are deadlocked on even bipartisan budgets.

Biden also issued a rallying cry to defend abortion rights. It was a far-ranging health agenda for a speech otherwise dominated by the Ukraine invasion, national security concerns and inflation challenges.

EXTRA, EXTRA — People who already ordered four free at-home Covid tests from the federal government can request an additional four tests from covidtests.gov starting next week, Biden announced during his speech. So far, more than 270 million at-home tests have been sent to over 68 million households, David reports.

The administration is also launching a separate initiative — first reported by POLITICO — that aims to allow people to get tested at a pharmacy and receive antiviral pills if they're Covid-19 positive.

A White House official said hundreds of clinics at retail pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and Kroger will be part of the effort, which also aims to educate the public about "new treatments and the importance of starting them soon after the onset of symptoms." Antiviral pills will also be distributed to long-term care facilities.

Biden's roadmap out of the pandemic — The White House is set to release a plan to ease pandemic restrictions, hoping to return to some sense of normalcy, Adam reports.

The new, wide-ranging strategy, to be released this morning, comes after weeks of the Biden administration consulting outside advisers, governors and business leaders about dropping more restrictions.

Endemic? Not so fast: The White House has been reluctant to declare the end of the pandemic. But officials have pointed to vaccine and test availability — and hope the plan, delivered after Biden's first State of the Union address, could ease political pressure for a path out of the pandemic.

Planning for future surges: The new blueprint will also lay out options for preparing and reacting to future surges, leaving the option for increasing restrictions in the future open.

Streamlined testing and treating: The plan will include streamlined ways to get a test by setting up so-called test-to-treat programs at pharmacies and other health entities, a person familiar with the plan said. Those pharmacies could supply antiviral drugs to people who test positive as the availability of those treatments grows.

A message from PhRMA:

Coronavirus

Kids' Covid vaccines seem less effective, a new CDC study finds — but is that because it was conducted during the Omicron wave?

The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine provided much less protection in preventing hospitalization among children ages 5–11 than in teens and adults, Lauren Gardner reports.

The CDC study found the vaccine offered a substantial level of protection — 46 percent effective — in younger children but not as much as it did in earlier studies on the vaccine in teens and adults. The smaller doses for younger children could contribute to the lower levels of efficacy, researchers suggested.

Teens fare better: People ages 12–15 and 16–17 saw better rates of effectiveness — 83 percent and 76 percent, respectively — within five months of their second dose.

The Omicron factor: Researchers wrote that the lower vaccine effectiveness in younger children, compared with older groups, "was likely driven by the predominant variant."

The teen group saw a drop in efficacy during the Omicron surge, the study found — 45 percent for those 12–15 and 34 percent for the 16–17 group. Children's hospitalizations were highest when Omicron became the dominant variant.

The CDC findings come after New York state health officials reported similar results. It also comes weeks after the FDA delayed its meeting to consider authorizing the Pfizer vaccine for children under 5.

Number of new cases plummets — The number of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. are back to levels seen before the Omicron surge, POLITICO's Taylor Miller Thomas shows in a new DataPoint.

Though caseloads are still higher than they were early in the pandemic, the drop in cases led the CDC to revise its masking guidance.

In Congress

FIRST IN PULSE: Bill proposes HHS committee to fight misinformation — Sens.Chris Murphy(D-Conn.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will introduce a bill Wednesday to promote public education on health care through a new committee in HHS.

The Promoting Public Health Information Act would create the Public Health Information and Communications Advisory Committee, a group within HHS specializing in public health, medicine, communications and national security.

The bill would also give awards for public education initiatives — and fund the committee and educational initiatives with $45 million.

"We cannot allow public health misinformation about Covid-19 — or any future public health emergencies — to run amok," Luján said in a statement.

Around the Nation

California drops mask mandate for the unvaccinated — Unvaccinated California employees won't have to keep wearing masks under an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, POLITICO's Alexander Nieves writes.

The order notes that masks are still "strongly recommended for all individuals" for most people who work indoors.

Vaccine mandate considered: The state legislature is still considering a Covid-19 vaccination mandate for all workplaces.

Names in the News

The Natural Products Association announced that Douglas Kalman will be the organization's new scientific adviser. Kalman, soon to be the director of scientific affairs, has worked in the clinical nutrition and dietary supplements industry throughout his career — including at the American Society for Nutrition, the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

What We're Reading

Over two years of the pandemic, researchers have bolstered the clinical-trial infrastructure to develop treatments for Covid-19 — positioning 2022 to be the year scientists finally understand how best to treat it, Heidi Ledfordwrites for Nature.

For NBC, Phil McCausland writes a harrowing story of pediatric patients with cancer in Ukraine, who have relocated to hospital basements that have been converted to bomb shelters.

Genetic databases are far too white to be useful for global populations — and researchers are devising comprehensive plans to make them more inclusive, Grace Brownewrites for Wired.

Setting boundaries at work requires a combination of technological barriers — like turning your phone on Do Not Disturb — and recognizing the other parts of your identity that are just as valuable, if not more so, than your career, Rainesford Staufferwrites for Teen Vogue.

A message from PhRMA:

The most vulnerable patients face challenges.

3 in 10 Americans who have insurance still face a financial barrier to care.

We need to make the cost of medicine more predictable and affordable. Government price setting is the wrong way. The right way means covering more medicines from day one, making out-of-pocket costs more predictable and sharing negotiated savings with patients at the pharmacy counter.

Learn more.