Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Beefs Up His Coronavirus Task Force
The Hill: Biden Transition Adds New Members To Coronavirus Task Force
President-elect Joe Biden announced Saturday he is adding three new members to his transition team's coronavirus task force as the incoming administration focuses on preparation to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The transition said in a statement that Jane Hopkins, Jill Jim and David Michaels are joining the team, which is co-chaired by David Kessler, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Marcella Nunez-Smith. The task force is charged with helping Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and the transition cobble together a “robust and aggressive response to contain the virus." (Axelrod, 11/28)
Politico: Biden’s Plan For An Army Of Disease Trackers Faces Long Odds
A raging pandemic and a gridlocked Congress could upend President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to hire 100,000 public health workers to trace Covid-19’s spread, despite widespread agreement it’s needed to finally end the crisis. Contact tracing will be essential even after Covid-19 vaccines become widely available, because not everyone will get shots and scattered outbreaks will continue to ripple across the country. Quickly identifying who’s been exposed to people with infections can guide efforts to stamp out new hot spots and break chains of transmission. (Ollstein and Goldberg, 11/26)
CNN: How The Coronavirus Is Really The Only Issue That Matters
A new Monmouth University poll finds that 27% of Americans say that the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest issue facing President-elect Joe Biden over the next four years. That's the top percentage for any issue, and it follows months of polling from Gallup showing that Americans think the coronavirus is the most important problem facing the country. (Enten, 11/29)
Also —
Politico: Biden’s Other Health Crisis: A Resurgent Drug Epidemic
President-elect Joe Biden, long viewed as a drug policy hawk during his four decades in the Senate, is signaling a different approach to confronting a still-raging drug addiction epidemic made worse by the pandemic. Biden, who has stocked his team with addiction experts with extensive backgrounds in public health, will emphasize new funding for substance abuse treatment and prevention, while calling to eliminate jail time for drug use. It’s a departure from his tough-on-crime approach as a senator — and from President Donald Trump’s frequent focus on a law enforcement response to the drug crisis, which experts said undercut necessary public health measures. (Goldberg and Ehley, 11/28)
