And here it is: President Joe Biden He tested positive for the coronavirusthe White House announced Thursday morning, a Dosing with Baxlovid To prevent his “very mild symptoms” so far from becoming severe.
In some ways, this is one of the cases the whole world has been waiting for – no sadistically, necessarily, but simply because, like so many other injuries recently, it felt inevitable. Once upon a time, it may have seemed possible to avoid this virus; Now most Americans have it. SARS-CoV-2 was Subtracting variables and subvariables In an extremely violent segment, wave after wave of casualties struck the nation, causing the tops of the state to collapse into an endless plateau. Vice President Kamala Harris has contracted coronavirus in April; Anthony Fauci got it in June.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of these high-profile cases is not that they occurred, but when. Although they are certainly on the front lines of the country’s response to the coronavirus, these officials have enjoyed the privilege of protection throughout the pandemic, with access to masks, tests, vaccines, and most recently antiviral drugs; convenience and security of jobs that can be performed during isolation; Social and economic means to separate themselves from colleagues, loved ones, and support staff for Alert close contacts about exposure. As much as anyone can, says Anne Sossen, a public health researcher at Dartmouth College, “they’ve had access to all the tools available” the country must fight the coronavirus, so much so that they’ve been given the freedom to get a little ahead of the curve. Fauci, for example, received two Baxlovid cycles when symptoms disappear and then recur unauthorized use It is the drug that has drawn some criticism from infectious disease experts who believed the move was unjustified and potentially confusing to the public unsure of who should take the drug and how.
Avoiding the virus, or at least a known test-confirmed infection, up to this point in the pandemic has real value. In the United States, our collective ability to evade any dangerous result is much higher than it was in October 2020, for example, when President Donald Trump tested positive. Trump’s struggle with the virus spread at a time before COVID vaccines were available, and his doctors treated his illness as Urgent medical emergencyHe was taken to the hospital for observation and treatment. At the time, COVID treatments were highly patient-focused, and had to be administered by a trained healthcare professional, usually in a medical setting; Like Biden, Trump got the best care available at the time, but in the first year of the crisis it necessitated remdesivir’s Trifecta, steroids, and it’s still experimental monoclonal antibodieswho trump He later described it, misleadingly, as a “cure.” Since then, most monoclonal antibody treatments have been discontinued, including the specific cocktail Trump received Because it is less effective Against the variables circulating today.
Today, President Biden may not need anything other than Baxlovid, which is what the Food and Drug Administration needs Green light late last year It can be taken as a pill at home. “We know a lot now,” says Tyson Bell, MD, a critical care and infectious disease physician at UVA Health. “We understand what treatments work, and what treatments don’t.” Although Biden is 79 years old – an age that puts him at high risk of serious consequences from the virus – he has been vaccinated four times, having received The second booster in late March. Clinical trials have shown that baxlovid as well Nearly 90 percent effective in reducing the risk of hospitalization or death from coronavirus (although these data were obtained from completely unvaccinated populations; real-world estimates of drug performance You have also far more mixed). Books by Kevin O’Connor, Chief Physician In today’s message That “I would expect it to respond positively, as do most highly protected patients.”
In the third year of the pandemic, not as surprising as Biden’s illness was pressure on the White House to use it as a statement on truly An approach to controlling COVID. In 2020, Trump Concerned experts By taking off his mask and walking to the White House after he was discharged from the hospital that treated him for COVID. Nearly two years later, Biden is apparently beginning to craft a business-as-usual version: The White House has already done announce It “continues to carry out the full functions of the office while in isolation”… which in some way includes the country’s chief decision maker Tweeting from photos without a mask (Supposed to be taken by someone else) to himself doing paperwork at his desk.
But, like Trump’s experience, Biden’s experience – including any professional performances – remains one among the exceptions. “The president, as we want, has access to treatments,” says Otebe Essien, MD, a health equity researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. “we hope that Everyone should.”
They do not. Although the White House has made a lot of noise about the need for funding to keep the country mired in tests, treatments, and vaccines, Congress has not made these resources available, and the administration has not mustered the political will to change the situation. Nor has it sparked the enthusiasm needed to reignite America’s pandemic response wherever it has fallen. Cases are still understated; The tests are still untapped. Vaccination rates – and especially increased vaccination rates – remain alarmingly low. Effective treatments have been collected Dust on the shelves Center Huge disparities in access. Gathering restrictions and masks are now mostly mitigating measures of the past, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s relaxed guidelines currently recommend the following: People in more than a third of the country’s provinces should cover their faces To control the spread of the coronavirus. At the beginning of this month, in the celebration of the Fourth of July, the President of the Republic shouted that country She was “closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus”; Weeks later, he hosts the same discount. Although he is Essien told me he might have access to the tools to combat it, “that doesn’t mean they’re in the hands of the people who need them.”
That the president’s infection occurred Currently, During the nation’s months-long, multi-variable wave of faltering, she talks about the bad episode the country found itself in. The current rally is showing few signs of slowing. More virus replication is undoubtedly on their way. However, not much has been done to respond to Danger, not to mention a preventive To prevent the position from derailing. Sosin told me that the United States has fallen behind in accepting the status quo: uncontrolled transmission, and viral evolution in a loop.
Biden could have delayed his fight with the disease a little longer, saving time to develop better antivirals, explaining the long-running risks of COVID, or at least the highly anticipated downfall. BA.4/5 لقاح Vaccine Update. Doing so, though, would have required more investment — perhaps from him as an individual, but especially from his country, under his leadership, to reduce transmission en masse. However, in this current environment, “the virus has many pathways to spread through society,” Bell told me — including the president.
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