Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Administration's Covid Strategy Questioned During Edgy Senate Hearing
The Hill: Biden Health Officials Slammed At Hearing For Confusing Pandemic Messaging
Top Biden administration health officials faced pointed questions during a Senate hearing Tuesday about confusion surrounding pandemic guidance. Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Health Committee, blasted the administration's difficulties in communicating information on testing, boosters and isolation. “This administration has time and again squandered its opportunities and made things worse in the decisions you’ve made on testing and treatments and most crucially in communicating with the American people," Burr said during the hearing. (Weixel, 1/11)
The New York Times: U.S. Officials Defend Omicron Response At Senate Hearing
Top federal health officials on Tuesday defended the Biden administration’s efforts to protect Americans from the highly contagious Omicron variant, facing withering accusations from senators about the scarcity of coronavirus tests and confusing guidance on how soon people who test positive for the virus can return to normal life. In a nearly four-hour hearing, lawmakers charged that the administration remained woefully unable to meet the demand for at-home tests, noting that the White House would fulfill its pledge to send 500 million of them to American households for free only after the current surge had peaked. (Weiland and LaFraniere, 1/11)
Politico: Decoding What Biden Health Officials Told Congress About Omicron
Senators on Tuesday demanded clear answers from the Biden administration health officials on the state of the resurging pandemic and the government's short- and long-term plans for combating it. They mostly got jargon. In contrast to previous oversight hearings on the Biden administration's Covid-19 response, Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee raised sharp questions and complaints about widespread “confusion and frustration” around who should isolate and for how long after a Covid exposure or diagnosis, or where and when to get tested. (Ollstein, 1/11)
Also on the state of the pandemic —
Stat: 13 Big Questions About Biden's Response To Omicron
Amid another coronavirus surge, and facing pressure over everything from testing access to school closures, top Biden administration health officials are headed to Congress Tuesday for a hearing on the Covid-19 pandemic. The hearing, held by the Senate Health Committee, is framed around SARS-CoV-2 variants, but it will also be a chance for senators to pull information from the witnesses about the state of the pandemic and grill them over problems — legitimate or political ones — in the U.S. response. (Joseph, Branswell, Florko and Facher, 1/11)
Politico: 'Rules Need To Be Clear': Dems Call For Covid Strategy Reset As Cases Spike
Record hospitalizations. A nationwide scramble for tests. Entire school districts forced to shutter. As a brutal surge of Omicron infections hits an exhausted nation, a growing number of Democrats are urging the Biden White House to reset its Covid battle plan to prevent what they fear could mushroom into a crisis of trust in public health authorities as cases spike in virtually every state. (Ferris, Ollstein and Wu, 1/11)
The Boston Globe: Lawmakers Press Baker On COVID, Arguing For More Aggressive Posture As Surge Wallops Massachusetts
Arguing the state has been too hands-off in quelling the new COVID-19 surge, Democratic state lawmakers on Tuesday pressed Governor Charlie Baker to take a more aggressive posture on testing in schools, masking rules, and public messaging. The leaders of a legislative committee peppered Baker and his health secretary, Marylou Sudders, with questions over a combined 75 minutes, at times engaging in testy exchanges about the governor’s turbulent distribution of masks to educators and his administration’s resistance to a universal mask mandate. (Stout and Fatima, 1/11)
The Washington Post: Omicron Surge Spreads Epidemic Of Confusion
As Americans push into a third winter of viral discontent, this season has delivered something different: Amid the deep polarization about masks and vaccines, amid the discord over whether and how to return to pre-pandemic life, a strange unity of confusion is emerging, a common inability to decipher conflicting advice and clashing guidelines coming from government, science, health, media and other institutions. (Fisher, Spolar and Blumberg, 1/11)
The Washington Post: On Fox News, Tucker Carlson Spreads An Already Debunked Claim About Covid Deaths And Comorbidities
Monday evening brought something special to Fox News’s prime-time lineup. Tucker Carlson’s program was a “special edition,” as text displayed at one point on the show’s lower-third suggested, on “the left’s politicization of the coronavirus.” In reality, however, the show was a very good example of its usual focus: Carlson’s politicizing the coronavirus in service of the political right. There’s a very concrete example of that effort from Monday’s show. It’s an example that makes obvious how concerned Carlson and his team are about accuracy (not terribly) but also how difficult it can be to uproot misinformation. (Bump, 1/11)
