The Biden administration Wednesday announced a new COVID “preparedness plan” for its next phase of the pandemic response, which will require additional federal funding. Per the plan, the strategy is based on four pillars: Protecting against and treating Americans for COVID, preparing for the new COVID variants, preventing economic shutdowns, and leading the effort to “vaccinate the world.”
The 96-page strategy — dubbed the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan — opens with praise for Biden’s pandemic response that unleashed “the full force of the federal government, the innovation of the private sector, and the determination of the American people” to fight against the “worst public health crisis in more than a century.”
The opening paragraph is brow-raising, since it has become obvious that the United States federal government was involved in the creation of the virus. It also botched the initial pandemic response by quarantining healthy Americans and shutting down the economy and schools, all of which had detrimental effects on the health of Americans while having virtually no effect on the virus’ transmission. Moreover, the “private sector,” which is a reference to the Big Pharma companies, has contributed to the issue as well. Their innovative “vaccines” turned out to be a rather mediocre tool against preventing infection and transmission, according to the federal government itself, and some studies argue that the vaccines have a “negative” efficacy, meaning the vaccinated are at higher risk of getting reinfected with COVID. Numerous others point to the record-breaking number of adverse reactions connected to the shots.
The administration basically acknowledges the shots don’t grant protection from infection. “The Administration has put vaccines at the center of our COVID-19 response because vaccines are the best tool we have to prevent hospitalization and death,” reads the White House announcement of the plan.
“America has weathered the current Omicron wave with minimal disruption,” continues the announcement. “As the country emerges from the Omicron wave, our path forward relies on maintaining and continually enhancing the numerous tools we now have to protect ourselves and our loved ones — from vaccines, to tests, to treatments, to masks, and more.”
Vaccine “enhancement” is already in the works. Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna started developing Omicron-specific shots right after the variant emerged last November in South Africa. While Pfizer said the shot will be available as early as March, it is unclear who would really need it with Omicron passing its peak. Previously, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, along with Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s top executives, signaled that COVID annual revaccination will be a “likely scenario.”
The White House seemingly agrees: “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will also continue to monitor the efficacy and durability of currently authorized vaccines against current and future variants and make recommendations to optimize protection.” Recently, the CDC updated its definition of “fully vaccinated” — which previously referred to people receiving either both of their Pfizer or Moderna shots or a single Johnson & Johnson shot — to include “up to date.” Currently, the CDC recommends that the “fully vaccinated” get “up to date” by taking a third, and in some cases, a fourth dose.
To keep all Americans’ vax status “current,” and also to help in “vaccinating the world,” the federal government plans to secure domestic production of an additional one billion doses of vaccines per year – three times the United States’ population.
Notably, per the plan, the White House will prioritize vaccination of the “youngest children” — younger than five — as soon as the FDA green-lights the shot.
The administration would also like to invest in research of a universal vaccine to protect against all previous, current, and future COVID strains.
As for testing, it is unclear why the government would spend taxpayer dollars on something in low demand. Nearly half of the 500 million “free” COVID tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed, according to an AP report on Monday.
Regarding treatments, “Today about 4 million treatment courses are available to Americans,” said the White House. It then advertised “1 million additional courses of the Pfizer antiviral available in March, and another 2.5 million additional courses of the Pfizer antiviral available in April.” (Emphasis in original.)
What are those antivirals? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization to Pfizer’s COVID treatment antiviral pill called Paxlovid back in December 2021. The pill is intended to be taken for the treatment of mild-to-moderate cases in people 12 and older. The cost of one course of Paxlovid is reportedly $529. That experimental and costly drug has been dubbed “Pfizermectin” — a combination of the company’s name and the drug ivermectin — by some observers. Pfizer describes its pill as a “potent protease inhibitor,” which is exactly what ivermectin, a proven COVID early treatment, is, but for a fraction of the price the Biden administration is paying Pfizer.
And, among other things, the administration is asking Congress to approve the following measures:
- Ensure “equitable” access to COVID-19 health care and public health resources
- Combat COVID “disinformation and misinformation”
- Improve data collection and research tools used by the FDA to identify new COVID variants
- Add antivirals, masks, and testing kits to the Strategic National Stockpile
- Increase “investment” in the Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX)
In a nutshell, the Biden administration believes that while America has made “strong progress,” COVID is here to stay, and Americans should keep spending money to fight it.
“Make no mistake,” warns the plan, “President Biden will not accept just ‘living with COVID’ any more than we accept ‘living with’ cancer, Alzheimer’s, or AIDS…. Because of our work, we are no longer going to let COVID-19 dictate how we live.”
If that is true, it is unclear why President Biden has just extended a national state of emergency due to the pandemic.
