Biden issuing pandemic plan that aims to expand access to testing and vaccines, reopen schools

On January 21, his first full day in office, President Joe Biden will unveil his administration’s playbook for ending the COVID-19 crisis. The 21-page national strategy houses seven broad goals, starting with regaining the public trust through regular briefings with CDC and other government scientists and public sharing of data. Among other objectives, the plan also aims to broaden testing and vaccination; safely reopen schools and travel; and help states financially, in part by convincing Congress to cover the cost for states to vaccinate low-income Medicaid beneficiaries. Biden also signed three executive orders on Inauguration Day that, respectively, require masks and social distancing at all federal properties, pull back the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and bring back a White House division on global health security and biodefense that was dismantled a few years ago. In tandem with the new pandemic plan expected today, the directives present a dramatically different approach to the Trump administration’s response to the public health crisis, which encouraged states to develop individual pandemic response plans.