Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Focuses First Transition Work On Pandemic's Looming 'Dark Winter'
Politico: Biden And His Shadow Health Panel Start Plotting Pandemic Response
President-elect Joe Biden gave clear signals on Monday that his administration will take a completely different approach to the coronavirus pandemic — warning that the United States would face a "very dark winter," unveiling a new Covid advisory group stacked with veteran public health experts, lowering expectations for a rapidly available vaccine and making an urgent plea for Americans to cover their faces and slow the soaring rate of infection. Flanked by a masked Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Del., Biden made early reference to the "positive news" that drugmaker Pfizer had found its vaccine candidate to be more than 90 percent effective. But he said the shot, if approved, "will not be widely available for many months yet to come." (Miranda Ollstein and Forgey, 11/9)
AP: Biden Targets Virus As His White House Transition Begins
Biden began with a direct appeal to all Americans to wear masks, a departure from Trump, who has mocked Biden and others who make a point of always wearing protective face coverings when around others. In an official move, the president-elect formed a coronavirus advisory board dominated by scientists and doctors, while Trump has had a falling out with the medical experts on his own virus task force. (Weissert, Marcelo and Madhani, 11/19)
The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden Kicks Off Transition Focused On Coronavirus
Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received their first briefing Monday on the pandemic from the transition team’s newly announced Covid-19 advisory board, after a study showed the Pfizer vaccine to be more than 90% effective in the first 94 subjects who were infected by the new coronavirus and developed at least one symptom. Mr. Biden congratulated the scientists who had been working on the vaccine but said that mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing would be the best defense against the coronavirus until next year at the earliest. (Jamerson and Peterson, 11/9)
The New York Times: Pandemic Reaches Grim Milestone As Biden Moves To Take Charge
Coronavirus cases surged to a new record on Monday, with the United States now averaging 111,000 cases each day for the past week, a grim milestone amid rising hospitalizations and deaths that cast a shadow on positive news about the effectiveness of a potential vaccine. As the number of infected Americans passed 10 million and governors struggled to manage the pandemic, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. tried on Monday to use his bully pulpit — the only tool at his disposal until he replaces President Trump in 72 days — to plead for Americans to set aside the bitterness of the 2020 election and wear a mask. (Shear, 11/9)
NPR: President-Elect Biden's Plans To Fix U.S. Health Care And Public Health
As of Jan. 20, 2021 — Inauguration Day — the federal government is about to get much more involved in health care and the COVID-19 pandemic response. Exactly how much more involved, now that Joe Biden is president-elect, depends on whether Republicans keep control of the Senate. And that likely won't be determined until early January, when Georgia's two Senate run-off races are held. Trump's nearly four years as president have been marked by a scaled-back federal investment and involvement in health care in a range of ways — giving states more authority to run their own health insurance markets, for example, and leaving them to come up with their own strategies for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and more. (Simmons-Duffin, 11/9)
Also —
CNN: Here's Who's On Joe Biden's Covid-19 Advisory Board
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris' newly appointed Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board is led by established public health officials and staffed by a mix of doctors and current and former government officials, some with high-profile media visibility. The advisory board is co-chaired by former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler, former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Yale associate professor of medicine and epidemiology. (Levenson, 11/9)
The Washington Post: McConnell And Biden Could Bring Bipartisan Cooperation To Congress
Joe Biden wanted to raise taxes on wealthy estates. Mitch McConnell wanted to keep them low. The two longtime Washington politicians quickly discovered one point of agreement: the vote count. With former president George W. Bush’s tax cuts headed toward expiration in December 2010, McConnell phoned Biden and told him that Senate Republicans had enough votes to keep the lower estate tax. Biden respected McConnell’s math. They eventually struck an agreement that marked the first of several times McConnell and Biden would reach a bipartisan deal to avert a looming financial cliff during the Obama administration, forming what multiple lawmakers and aides described as a sincere, if professional, bond that may soon be the most important in national politics. (Stein and Sullivan, 11/9)
