WNY doctors support more testing under Biden's Covid plan, but worry about weeks ahead

Nov. 15--As Covid-19 spreads to unprecedented levels in Buffalo and across the country, local health care providers and government leaders have plenty to dread and little to anticipate.

While they fear widespread illness and death in the late fall and early winter, many said they are looking forward to one thing: a much more aggressive federal response to the pandemic expected under a Joe Biden presidency.

"In my mind, the current administration has failed terribly in the management of Covid," said Dr. Myron Glick, founder and chief executive officer of Jericho Road Community Health Center in Buffalo. "We failed as a nation, and so we need to do something different. And I think a national approach, where we're all in this together and resources are spread out -- you know, that would be a very big help."

That's just what Biden has been promising. In contrast to the Trump administration, which emphasized letting the states take the lead on the pandemic except for the search for a vaccine, Biden proposes a much more comprehensive top-down plan, including:

--Ensuring that free testing is available nationwide.

--Setting up a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps to enlist up to 100,000 health professionals to fight the pandemic.

--Using the Defense Production Act to produce personal protective equipment.

--Setting clear guidance for schools and businesses.

--Urging governors to implement mask mandates.

But along with their praise of the Biden plan, public health officials and local political leaders also stressed that the days leading up to Inauguration Day pose great peril. The Covid-19 crisis is spiraling, and the country's response is still overseen by a lame-duck president whose chief of staff, Mark Meadows, recently said: "We are not going to control the pandemic."

The plan

Biden spelled out the details of his Covid-19 plan last week as he introduced the Covid-19 task force that will advise him. It's led by three prominent physicians: Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general under President Obama; David Kessler, Food and Drug Administration commissioner under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; and Marcella Nunez-Smith, associate dean for health equity research at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Such appointments, combined with the broad direction of Biden's plan, drew praise from health experts such as Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, a former president of the American Medical Association.

"The important thing is President Biden is sure to follow scientific recommendations," said Nielsen, a clinical professor at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

For the better part of a year, scientists have urged a national coronavirus testing strategy, only to meet resistance from a president who has repeatedly tweeted comments such as: "Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy."

Biden takes a different view. Saying that testing is key to stamping out the virus, he plans to double the number of drive-through testing sites nationwide and supplement that with at-home and instant tests. He aims to increase testing sevenfold.

All of that sounds good to Dr. Timothy F. Murphy, senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the UB medical school.

"We need better testing, more widely available testing and testing that gives immediate results," Murphy said. "And if you look at the Biden plan, that's one of the things that's front and center."

To help facilitate that plan, Biden hopes to set up a Public Health Jobs Corps that will aid in the Covid-19 response in places where help is needed. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said such a corps could also help with contact tracing and the distribution of a vaccine once it becomes available.

"If you create this whole new health force under the CDC, you'll be able to get that work done that much quicker, which will allow more kids to go to school and allow more businesses to reopen," said Gillibrand, who added that she'd like to work on legislation to put that plan in place.

While Biden will need a cooperative Congress to fund additional testing and a Public Health Jobs Corps, Nielsen noted that there's much that President Biden could do with the stroke of a pen.

For example, he has said he would use the Defense Production Act to centralize the manufacturing of personal protective equipment.

That's a welcome idea, said Kenneth A. Schoetz, CEO of the Western New York Healthcare Association.

"When you have individual hospitals fighting amongst themselves, fighting with the county, fighting with the state, fighting with FEMA for masks and gowns and gloves as we were experiencing in the spring, that makes absolutely no sense," Schoetz said.

Health care experts and politicians alike said they also expect Biden to lead from the bully pulpit. While the president doesn't have the power to implement a national mask mandate, he can encourage governors to implement them and perhaps threaten to withhold federal funding from those who don't.

That's another contrast to Trump, who has mocked mask-wearing. Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican, said Biden will take a better approach.

"With President-elect Biden coming in and stressing the social distancing, the masking and other issues that are out there, I think that's an enhancement," Reed said.

The peril

Amid the praise for Biden's Covid-19 plan, health experts and local leaders issue a grave warning: The Covid-19 crisis is likely to be far worse by Inauguration Day.

That's why they are urging a more urgent national response to Covid-19 now rather than waiting until Jan. 20.

"Whether it's President Trump or Vice President Pence who led the Covid task force, we need them to re-engage," said Schoetz, of the Healthcare Association. "We can't afford two months of nothing."

Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz agreed, saying the two administrations need to begin working together on Biden's Covid plan.

"I'm very worried that by the time we get to Jan. 20 at noon when President Biden will be sworn in, we're going to be in a horrible situation that is going to be difficult for any individual to address," Poloncarz said.

In an appearance before reporters Friday, Trump never acknowledged the severity of the latest spike in infections. Instead, he lauded Pfizer's development of a vaccine that's proved promising in clinical trials -- while saying he would deny that vaccine to New York State because Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has promised a state review of vaccines approved by the Trump administration.

Trump's statement was largely meaningless because he will not be president much longer. And as for Pfizer's vaccine, local health experts said it's encouraging -- but that it is no immediate solution to the pandemic.

That's because vaccines take time to produce, and because the Covid-19 infection rate is spiking locally now and is expected to continue to do so.

"It's going to be a lot worse," said Glick, of Jericho Road "It's pretty scary."

Glick said Halloween parties appear to have fueled the recent spike, and Rep. Brian Higgins noted that Canada experienced higher Covid rates after its Thanksgiving last month -- which could be an ominous sign for America's holiday season.

"To the extent that that influences the spread of the coronavirus, we're looking at near-term problems," said Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat. "But I do believe that unlike President Trump, President Biden has a plan, and he will execute their plan with great rectitude."

Biden will do so, most likely, at or near the pandemic's peak, several sources said.

"Even if we have a vaccine, there will be so few people who have gotten it that it won't matter" for many months, said Nielsen, the former AMA president. "I think we're in a situation where we really need to hunker down till about April."

In a politically polarized country, some people are sure to ignore Biden's call for masking, several sources said. But Murphy, of UB, said that over time, Covid deniers will learn a hard lesson.

"More people are going to have family members who are going to experience bad disease and death," Murphy said.

Perhaps then, he added, more people will begin to take the pandemic seriously.

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