A group of COVID-19 experts has called on the Biden Administration to do more to counter SARS-CoV-2, the Washington Post reports.
The administration announced a "roadmap" last week to enable the US to return to more normal routines, but this new group, which includes former Biden transition team advisors on COVID-19, warns against prematurely declaring the pandemic over, according to the Post. The group, which was coordinated the by the University of Pennsylvania's Ezekiel Emanuel offers more specific goals for dealing with the pandemic, such as vaccinating 85 percent of US adults against COVID-19, enabling people with long COVID to apply for disability benefits, and improving indoor ventilation, the Post says. It adds that the group additionally calls for $100 billion in coronavirus response funding for the next year and $15 billion a year after that, as compared to the $22.5 billion the Biden Administration has suggested.
"This is a classic situation of where we tend to underinvest, and we tend to move on, and we tend to forget. And that would be a huge mistake," Emanuel tells the Post.
The White House, according to the Post, says it appreciates the group's advice and adds it has consulted with multiple expert teams on its own plan.