National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan Creates Path Out of Pandemic

March 25, 2022 by Alec Stone MA, MPA, Former ONS Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy

President Joe Biden released the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan (https://www.whitehouse.gov/covidplan/#prevent) in March 2022, enabling the United States to move forward with goals to protect against and treat COVID-19, prepare for new variants, prevent economic and educational shutdowns, and expand vaccinations.

The plan (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NAT-COVID-19-PREPAREDNESS-PLAN.pdf) is a comprehensive, evidence-based strategy that “lays out the roadmap to help fight COVID-19 in the future as we move America from crisis to a time when COVID-19 does not disrupt our daily lives and is something we prevent, protect against, and treat,” the White House said.

“To fully execute on this plan requires Congress doing its part to invest in tools that work,” the White House said (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NAT-COVID-19-PREPAREDNESS-PLAN.pdf). “Additional funding will be necessary to provide critical treatments like pills and monoclonal antibodies, to make further investments to shore up America’s testing supply, to provide resources that guard against and prepare for new variants, and to continue to fight this virus abroad.”

The plan outlines exactly how the administration will work with Congress to accomplish its four goals:

Protect Against and Treat COVID-19

Prepare for New Variants

Prevent Economic and Educational Shutdowns

Expand Vaccination

“America must maintain the tools—vaccines, boosters, treatments, tests, and masks—to protect against COVID-19 and dramatically decrease the risk of the most severe outcomes,” the White House said (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NAT-COVID-19-PREPAREDNESS-PLAN.pdf). “We must be prepared to respond to a new variant quickly and keep our schools and businesses open.”


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