mericans celebrated a return to science-based public health policy on January 21 when the Biden administration rolled out its 200-page pandemic action plan. The Biden-Harris plan to combat COVID-19 focuses on faster vaccinations, expanded testing, and increased healthcare equity. Perhaps most importantly, the Biden-Harris plan promises to “listen to science”—a welcome shift from the Trump administration’s politicization of scientific evidence in a country where COVID-19 has already claimed over 460,000 lives.
Recognizing the importance of global cooperation in preventing further pandemic harm, the Biden-Harris plan also includes a number of steps for reintroducing the U.S. to global public health efforts. Perhaps most notably, the Biden administration plan includes immediately rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO) after President Trump began the process for American withdrawal in July 2020. Restoring the U.S. to the WHO will have more than a domestic effect, seeing as the U.S. has historically been the organization’s largest funding source. Additionally, the U.S. has plans to join the WHO’s COVAX initiative, which is working to distribute COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. Lastly, the Biden administration is re-launching PREDICT, a pathogen tracking program hosted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The program was shut down under the Trump administration in October 2019, but between 2009-2019, it discovered 1,000 new potential viruses around the world.
A return to an era of American involvement in the public health sphere offers hope for a future featuring better global cooperation on health issues. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states were criticized for nationalist actions when an international perspective was needed. For example, in Wuhan, China, local officials were slow to report the appearance of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness to the WHO. Additionally, in Germany and France, export bans or restrictions were quickly implemented to keep protective medical equipment within state borders. Though the American recommitment to organizations like the WHO and its COVAX initiative are promising, the U.S. will have to do more than just return to the global public health stage to contribute to a culture of healthcare cooperation.
Another public health challenge that affects all countries across the world is that of pandemic preparedness. For many, COVID-19 was an indication that most countries were vastly underprepared for the challenges of a global pandemic. However, evidence regarding a lack of global pandemic preparedness was abound before the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan last December, despite what others might have thought at the time. In February 2020, during a White House press briefing, then-President Trump boasted that the U.S. was “very, very ready” for coronavirus because it was ranked first out of 195 countries on the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security’s Global Health Index for pandemic preparedness.
However, though the U.S. was ranked first, Trump neglected to mention that several other factors found by the index should have rendered concern about the country’s pandemic preparedness. The U.S. received low rankings among other developed countries for its numbers of doctors per capita as well as its numbers of hospital beds per capita. Additionally, the U.S. received the lowest possible score for public confidence in government, as well as an abysmal rating for access to healthcare, scoring 175th out of 195 countries. Other countries, however, had their own healthcare shortcomings, leading the creators of the index to conclude that no country was fully prepared for a pandemic or an epidemic, rendering international preparedness across the board very weak.
Ultimately, though the American return to the global public health sphere is an optimistic sign, much work needs to be done to prepare the world for future health security threats. The U.S., as well as several other countries, needs to do much work in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis to better prepare for future pandemics and epidemics. Additionally, it's not enough that the U.S. has recommitted to several of its international health obligations; the U.S., like many other counties, has much work ahead in terms of fostering better international cooperation on global health issues. In these uncertain times, one can only hope that the Biden administration’s plans offer hope for an international perspective on healthcare issues going forward.
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How Biden’s Presidency Benefits International Public Health Policy
The UN General Assembly holds a Special Session in Response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), gives a presentation during the second day of the special session. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías.
February 10, 2021
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mericans celebrated a return to science-based public health policy on January 21 when the Biden administration rolled out its 200-page pandemic action plan. The Biden-Harris plan to combat COVID-19 focuses on faster vaccinations, expanded testing, and increased healthcare equity. Perhaps most importantly, the Biden-Harris plan promises to “listen to science”—a welcome shift from the Trump administration’s politicization of scientific evidence in a country where COVID-19 has already claimed over 460,000 lives.
Recognizing the importance of global cooperation in preventing further pandemic harm, the Biden-Harris plan also includes a number of steps for reintroducing the U.S. to global public health efforts. Perhaps most notably, the Biden administration plan includes immediately rejoining the World Health Organization (WHO) after President Trump began the process for American withdrawal in July 2020. Restoring the U.S. to the WHO will have more than a domestic effect, seeing as the U.S. has historically been the organization’s largest funding source. Additionally, the U.S. has plans to join the WHO’s COVAX initiative, which is working to distribute COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. Lastly, the Biden administration is re-launching PREDICT, a pathogen tracking program hosted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The program was shut down under the Trump administration in October 2019, but between 2009-2019, it discovered 1,000 new potential viruses around the world.
A return to an era of American involvement in the public health sphere offers hope for a future featuring better global cooperation on health issues. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many states were criticized for nationalist actions when an international perspective was needed. For example, in Wuhan, China, local officials were slow to report the appearance of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness to the WHO. Additionally, in Germany and France, export bans or restrictions were quickly implemented to keep protective medical equipment within state borders. Though the American recommitment to organizations like the WHO and its COVAX initiative are promising, the U.S. will have to do more than just return to the global public health stage to contribute to a culture of healthcare cooperation.
Another public health challenge that affects all countries across the world is that of pandemic preparedness. For many, COVID-19 was an indication that most countries were vastly underprepared for the challenges of a global pandemic. However, evidence regarding a lack of global pandemic preparedness was abound before the novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan last December, despite what others might have thought at the time. In February 2020, during a White House press briefing, then-President Trump boasted that the U.S. was “very, very ready” for coronavirus because it was ranked first out of 195 countries on the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security’s Global Health Index for pandemic preparedness.
However, though the U.S. was ranked first, Trump neglected to mention that several other factors found by the index should have rendered concern about the country’s pandemic preparedness. The U.S. received low rankings among other developed countries for its numbers of doctors per capita as well as its numbers of hospital beds per capita. Additionally, the U.S. received the lowest possible score for public confidence in government, as well as an abysmal rating for access to healthcare, scoring 175th out of 195 countries. Other countries, however, had their own healthcare shortcomings, leading the creators of the index to conclude that no country was fully prepared for a pandemic or an epidemic, rendering international preparedness across the board very weak.
Ultimately, though the American return to the global public health sphere is an optimistic sign, much work needs to be done to prepare the world for future health security threats. The U.S., as well as several other countries, needs to do much work in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis to better prepare for future pandemics and epidemics. Additionally, it's not enough that the U.S. has recommitted to several of its international health obligations; the U.S., like many other counties, has much work ahead in terms of fostering better international cooperation on global health issues. In these uncertain times, one can only hope that the Biden administration’s plans offer hope for an international perspective on healthcare issues going forward.
