Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden Signals Health Care, Climate Change Will Top 'Day One' Agenda
The Washington Post: Biden Plans Immediate Flurry Of Executive Orders To Reverse Trump Policies
President-elect Joe Biden is planning to quickly sign a series of executive orders after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, immediately forecasting that the country’s politics have shifted and that his presidency will be guided by radically different priorities. He will rejoin the Paris climate accords, according to those close to his campaign and commitments he has made in recent months, and he will reverse President Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization. He will repeal the ban on almost all travel from some Muslim-majority countries, and he will reinstate the program allowing “dreamers,” who were brought to the United States illegally as children, to remain in the country, according to people familiar with his plans. (Viser, Min Kim and Linskey, 11/7)
Stat: Biden’s Ready To Start His Pandemic Response Immediately
Never, in the country’s nearly 250-year history, has a president inherited a pandemic on the scale of Covid-19. President-elect Joe Biden, who the Associated Press projected as the winner of the 2020 election on Saturday, will assume office on Jan. 20. He will likely do so amid surging coronavirus cases and increased deaths, and with no end in sight. (Facher, 11/7)
NBC News: Biden To Reach Out To State And Local Officials On Mask Mandates
President-elect Joe Biden in the coming days will begin calling governors and the mayors of major cities from both parties to encourage them to institute mask mandates as the coronavirus pandemic enters a potentially deadlier phase with winter arriving, according to a senior Biden adviser who briefed NBC News. "If a governor declines, he'll go to the mayors in the state and ask them to lead," the official said. "In many states, there is the capacity of mayors to institute mandates." (Przybyla, 11/7)
USA Today: Biden's Approach To Tackling COVID-19 Will Be Dramatically Different, And Quickly Apparent
The day President Donald Trump turns the White House over to Joe Biden, COVID-19 will remain just as big a threat to Americans. But the strategy for tackling it will change dramatically. ... The shift is expected to be swift once Biden takes office. "The public will immediately notice a vast change in science messaging from the White House," said Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. "The Biden administration will both convey pro-science messages and model the best behavior from among all White House and Cabinet staff." (Weintraub and Weise, 11/8)
FierceHealthcare: Biden To Turn To Executive Authority To Invoke Healthcare Priorities In Face Of Divided Congress
There are some areas that Biden could find common ground with Republicans in the Senate, chiefly on drug prices. “I know there are members in the Senate who really want to do something on drug prices and frustrated efforts did not go anywhere,” said Stephanie Kennan, healthcare policy advisor for the consulting firm MacGuireWoods. One area of consensus could be on changes to Medicare Part D. (King, 11/7)
