UNDER THE RADAR BIDEN COVID PLAN PROVISIONS: President Joe Biden’s new Covid-19 plan released Wednesday morning has a lot in it — and we mean a lot. It’s 96 pages and has a 16-page executive summary. By this point, you’ve probably heard about some of the more prominent items, but we don’t blame you if you didn’t read every page. The sweeping plan — which relies heavily on Congressional funding — envisions the next stage of the pandemic response as one in which the virus is less disruptive even if it comes come surging back. Its main goals are protecting and treating Covid, getting ready for new variants, protecting against lockdowns and furthering global vaccinations. But it also contains several items you might have overlooked. Tackling disinformation and misinformation: The administration is broadening its view on Covid 19 misinformation, which has run rampant during the pandemic, and taking steps to combat it. HHS is being enlisted to invest in “longer-term efforts” on fighting health misinformation. The agency will lean on community-based “trusted messengers” and a group of 17,000 volunteers to combat vaccine hesitancy. The Surgeon General also plans to issue a request for information from providers, tech companies and others to better grasp the impact of misinformation on the health care system to address future pandemics. Long Covid: Biden is convening several agencies, including HHS and the Defense Department, to develop a plan to enhance research on long Covid, working with agencies, academics and the private sector. HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will also work toward funding entities that provide care to people with long Covid. Data infrastructure: A dearth of real-time data has hampered the nation’s Covid-19 response, and Biden’s plan aims to address data and surveillance to allow for more nimble future responses. It includes bolstering sequencing ability to better detect variants, pushing data-system standardization, buoying state and local data infrastructure and working with the federal health IT office to train public health officials on modernizing data infrastructure. The proposals will need funding from Congress to move forward. SENATE VOTES DOWN VAX MANDATE: The Senate voted to get rid of Biden’s health care worker vaccine mandate 49-44 Tuesday, though the likely symbolic bill faces long odds of getting through the Democrat-held House, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. Every Democrat present opposed the proposal, but many Democratic senators weren’t there for the vote, allowing Republicans to push the bill through along party lines. The Biden administration said Wednesday Biden would veto the resolution because it makes “no sense … to reverse this much-needed protection for medically vulnerable patients.” Republicans called the mandate “coercive and unconstitutional” and said it could add to persistent health care worker shortages. “President Biden and his public health officials went forward with this vaccine mandate knowing it could lead to firings,” said lead sponsor Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). Vax mandate impact: Hospitals have avoided a mass exodus in response to the mandates , partially because it’s not hard to get a religious exemption, a POLITICO investigation found. The Supreme Court has upheld the mandate. How they did it: GOP lawmakers were able to bring the issue forward in the Democratic-held Senate via the Congressional Review Act, which can be used for recent agency regulations by a majority vote. TIKTOK PROBE O’CLOCK: State attorneys general are launching a probe into how TikTok affects children’s and young adults’ mental and physical health, POLITICO’s Susannah Luthi reports. The bipartisan effort is spearheaded by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and attorneys general from Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. The probe will also delve into TikTok’s knowledge of any ill effects. “We look forward to providing information on the many safety and privacy protections we have for teens,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. TikTok’s turn under the microscope: The investigation is just the latest push to scrutinize social media companies’ practices. The issue came to the forefront when Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before Congress. Bonta also pushed back against Facebook parent company Meta’s plans to allow children under 13 onto Instagram, which the company paused amid scrutiny. PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS MARKUP: The Senate HELP Committee announced Wednesday that it’s scheduling a markup on March 15 of its sweeping pandemic preparedness legislation, the PREVENT Pandemics Act. The announcement, which was just hours after Biden unveiled his plan for the pandemic’s next phase, came despite the bill not being introduced yet. The proposal, put forward in January by HELP Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and ranking Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, is set to be introduced “soon,” according to a committee release. The details: The move represents a next step for the effort, which proposes subjecting the CDC director to Senate confirmation for the first time. Like Biden’s plan, the bill calls for bolstering public health data and genomic sequencing and standards to improve public health data sharing. It also aims to modernize clinical trials and tackle medical device and drug shortages and proposes a 9/11 style commission on the Covid-19 response and the virus’ emergence. A NEW VISION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: The Commonwealth Fund announced today it’s establishing a new commission to chart a path forward for the U.S. public health system. The nonpartisan group will be chaired by Margaret Hamburg, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and initially made up of seven other public health experts who don’t currently serve in government positions. “We neglect our public health establishment, our public health capability repeatedly, and then a crisis arises and we throw money at it, and then we forget about it for another generation,” David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, told POLITICO. “We can't afford to waste the opportunities when they come around. The commission is expected to come up with a series of recommendations to be implemented at the federal, state and local levels and release a report in late spring 2022. HHS ISSUES GUIDANCE ON GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: HHS’s Office for Civil Rights issued guidance Wednesday, saying gender-affirming care for children bolsters their mental and physical health when medically appropriate and necessary.” The notice includes an implicit rebuke of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who recently ordered an investigation of gender-affirming procedures as “child abuse,” with the agency calling such characterizations “dangerous.” “Such attempts block parents from making critical health care decisions for their children, create a chilling effect on health care providers who are necessary to provide care for these youth, and ultimately negatively impact the health and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming youth,” the notice said. Abbott's order h as drawn an ACLU-backed lawsuit, which resulted in a temporary halt of one state investigation Wednesday. FTC APPLAUDS PROPOSED MERGER ENDING : The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday applauded Rhode Island’s two largest health care providers, Lifespan and Care New England, for ending their attempted merger. The agency had filed a complaint last month to block the potential merger, arguing it would hurt competition. DC SLASHES COVID DATA REPORTING: The nation’s capital is now reporting Covid case and hospitalization data weekly, Washington, D.C.’s health department announced Wednesday. The move comes after the CDC issued new metrics for when local governments can lift mask mandates and other restrictions, focusing more on hospitalizations and hospital capacity.
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