Public Health Experts Tell Select Subcommittee that Vaccines, Treatments, and Mitigation Efforts Have Moved Nation Past Crisis Phase of Coronavirus Pandemic

Washington, D.C. (March 16, 2022) – Today, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn, hosted a roundtable with public health experts to discuss the current phase of the pandemic, the ongoing level of risk posed by the coronavirus, and what must be done to keep all Americans safe two years after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.

Chairman Clyburn said at the beginning of today’s roundtable, “Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, we are emerging from the crisis phase of the coronavirus pandemic.  As a result of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts, the nation has made significant progress in containing the virus.  The Administration has helped to vaccinate over two-thirds of Americans, overseen the development of life-saving treatments, and provided critical supplies like N-95 masks and rapid tests to Americans for free.  These steps have saved lives, reduced the burdens on hospitals around the country, and enabled robust recovery.” 

He continued:  “Now that we have the tools to fight the coronavirus, we can transition away from treating the coronavirus as a crisis.  Those of us who are fully vaccinated and boosted can now feel safe going about our daily lives without putting our communities at undue risk.  Of course, just as public health officials work continuously to protect the American people from a wide array of health threats, our nation’s response to the coronavirus must continue in the post-crisis phase.  We must take particular care to protect the most vulnerable.  We know that the coronavirus can surprise us.”

Today’s participants were:  Dr. Jewel Mullen, Associate Dean for Health Equity, Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin; Dr. Carlos del Rio, Executive Associate Dean, Emory School of Medicine & Grady Health System; Dr. Robert Wachter, Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; and Dr. Leana Wen, Professor of Health Policy and Management, George Washington University.

Participants provided the following additional information:

The United States Has Reached an Inflection Point in the Coronavirus Crisis.

• Dr. Wen stated, “In many ways, I am much more optimistic now than I’ve ever been at any point in the pandemic.”  She continued:  “We have far more tools than before and science has really delivered.  We know, for example, that individuals who are vaccinated and boosted are generally very well protected from severe illness.  And now we also have treatments, we have testing, we have other tools that help us to be able to live with COVID.  And so, for the majority of Americans, it is possible to return back to pre-pandemic normal.”
• Dr. del Rio credited investments in research for helping to make a “huge difference” in overcoming the pandemic.  He stated, “The investment in science that Congress has done through the National Institutes of Health has paid off big time,” explaining:  “The research in developing an HIV vaccine at the NIH Vaccine Research Center was critically important in developing COVID vaccines.  I can go on and on and give you examples how investing in research has made a big difference.  We are in a different place right now.  It is because we made those investments in research.”
• Dr. Wen explained that now is the right time to ease mitigation measures, stating:  “Things have changed.  Where we are now in the pandemic is very different from where things were back in December.”

The Biden Administration’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Is the Right Set of Policies for the Ongoing Management of the Coronavirus.

• Dr. Wachter explained that there was a critical need for the tools outlined in the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan:  “We need to encourage more vaccination, more boosting—potentially another booster may be in our future.  We need to allow for more testing.  And we need to have treatments out there.  So, for example, the widespread availability of Paxlovid—the Pfizer oral antiviral—would, to a large extent, be a game changer.”
• Dr. del Rio emphasized the importance of data monitoring and surveillance for ongoing management of the coronavirus:  “Data is critically important for the kind of decisions that we need:  to know what is happening in the community as far as hospitalizations, as far as number of cases, as far as availability of medications.”
• Dr. del Rio also lauded the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan’s focus on global vaccination efforts, saying:  “If we don’t vaccinate the world, we are not going to get over this pandemic.  And we are just making a mistake by just focusing on what’s happening in my community, and not realizing that the disease is still killing 10,000 people daily globally.”

Congress Must Act Now to Ensure that the Country Is Equipped to Respond to Future Coronavirus Outbreaks and Variants and to Sustain Public Health Infrastructure.

• Dr. Wen emphasized the importance of Congress authorizing additional funding to combat the coronavirus in the future:  “If there’s anything that we have learned thus far, it’s that preparedness and prevention are absolutely critical.  We cannot wait until there is a crisis before we act.  And so now is the time to fund treatments, additional booster shots, make sure that we have sustained testing infrastructure.”
• Dr. Wachter reiterated the need for continued investment in the tools needed to manage the coronavirus, stating:  “We all want to go back to normal; we all want to put this behind us; we all want to move out of an emergency mode.  But that is not the time to withhold investment; it’s the time to redouble our investments.”  
• Dr. Wen added that it is “a travesty” that the Biden Administration may run out of funding to purchase additional antiviral pills. 
• Dr. Mullen noted the importance of continued investment in public health infrastructure:  “continuing to build up public health at the local level, at the state level, and at the federal level so we’re not playing catch up to try to get ahead of a crisis is actually very important.”

“We must do what we can to prevent another significant outbreak. And if there is, we must have the resources, as [today’s roundtable participants] said…to have a cure in place, especially for those who find themselves without health care coverage,” Chairman Clyburn said to close the roundtable. “I hope that [this roundtable] will be able to convince Congress to come forward with the resources that the Biden Administration has been asking for because we as a country must continue to protect and treat all of those who are in need.”

Click here to watch the full roundtable.