'We're not there yet,' says the C.D.C., as states repeal mask laws.

The White House has been meeting with outside health experts to plan a pandemic exit strategy and a transition to a "new normal," but the effort is colliding with a very public reality: a string of blue-state governors have abruptly abandoned their mask mandates, putting President Biden ahead of the curve.

On Wednesday, two of the administration's top doctors, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the president's primary medical adviser for the pandemic, and Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voiced cautious optimism about the epidemic's course. In an interview, Dr. Fauci added that if cases continue to decline and no new varieties emerge, the country "may be headed toward what we would consider more normalcy."

Dr. Fauci, on the other hand, warned that the situation is still "unpredictable," and that any recovery from the current crisis will be sluggish. And, while Dr. Walensky's organisation is working on new advice for states, she believes it is too soon for all Americans to remove their masks in indoor public areas.

"Our hospitalizations are still high, and our death rates are still high," she said at a White House Covid response team news briefing. "So, while we're working toward it and are encouraged by current trends, we're not quite there yet."

The governors' rush to repeal mask laws comes as White House Covid response coordinator Jeffrey D. Zients and the government's top doctors seek counsel from a wide range of public health professionals, including some former Biden advisors who have openly encouraged the president to reverse course. On Wednesday, Mr. Zients mentioned the meetings, saying that the White House is also reaching out to governors and local public health authorities to discuss "measures we should be doing to keep the country moving ahead."

According to some participants, the meetings are intended at writing a new playbook for the pandemic's delicate next phase, when the coronavirus threat is anticipated to fade but the risk of a new variation and another lethal spike remains very probable. They're dealing with a variety of challenges in addition to masking and mitigation, such as how to provide new antivirals to those who test positive for the virus and whether or not to modify school ventilation systems.

However, the White House is in a difficult position because to the slow debates inside the C.D.C. and Mr. Zients' team. Officials risk making the Biden administration look unimportant as governors go forth on their own as they analyse the science and design a careful approach.

"The administration needs to read the room and see that almost all elected leaders are moving on without them," said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner who has been critical of the administration. "No one expects the C.D.C. to say that everyone should go maskless right now," she added. They want precise measures on when limits can be withdrawn and when they might need to be reinstated."

Governors have stated as much. After a bipartisan group of governors met with Mr. Biden last week, Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters that he reminded the president that the country needed to "move away from the pandemic" and called for "clear parameters on how we can return to a greater level of normalcy."

The states have clearly decided not to wait any longer. New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Illinois governors joined a growing number of Democrats who have withdrawn either a broad statewide mask mandate or one that relates to schools on Wednesday. 

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said the president was committed to keeping his campaign promise to listen to scientists and follow the data when asked about the changes.

She went on to say, "That doesn't go at the speed of politics." "It travels at the pace of data," says the narrator.

The internal discussion comes as much of the country recovers from the latest Covid-19 outbreak, which was caused by the extremely contagious Omicron variety. According to a New York Times database, the seven-day average of new cases was at 253,000 on Wednesday, down from an average of 800,000 in mid-January. Hospitalizations are likewise on the decline, however deaths, which are a lagging sign, are still on the rise.

If the decline in cases and hospitalizations continues, as many experts predict, Mr. Biden will be forced to make some difficult choices: Should he lift the national emergency established by his predecessor, President Donald Trump, in March 2020? Should Vice President Joe Biden lift the mask ban he imposed on aircraft, trains, and buses?

Mr. Biden must tread carefully in order to prevent the appearance of a "mission accomplished" moment. With the number of cases declining in June of last year, his aides predicted a "summer of joy," and Mr. Biden himself announced on July 4 that the US was "closer than ever to declaring our freedom from a terrible illness." The Delta variant then took off across the country. The administration was likewise taken off surprise when the considerably more contagious Omicron variety emerged in late fall.

Any new strategy, according to Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, must take this into account.

"It has to recognise that we are beginning a new phase of virus transmission in our communities," he added, "but always keeping in mind that we were in precisely the same spot one year ago today, where instances were declining from a January peak and vaccines were pouring." "And have a look at where that got us."

Experts believe it's difficult to give a one-size-fits-all prescription for a country as large and diverse as the United States, so the C.D.C.'s masking judgments are extremely risky.

Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist who recently joined Kaiser Health News as an editor at large, said, "It's a tricky scenario because of course people are really wanting to get back to some form of routine." "How much transmission there is, what vaccination uptake has been — it's quite variable around the country," she says, "but the C.D.C. produces guidelines for the entire country, so it makes sense for them to be cautious."

One of the most problematic aspects of the pandemic has been masking. Many Republican governors have long since abandoned their mask laws. Some governors, such as Florida's Ron DeSantis, have outright prohibited mask regulations and threatened to prosecute school administrators who disobeyed them. Mr. Biden was outraged by the conduct, and urged his education secretary to file federal civil rights lawsuits to prevent states from prohibiting masking in schools.

However, when the masking limitations are lifted, White House officials have not condemned their Democratic colleagues. "There is a distinct distinction between standing in the way, as Ron DeSantis did," Ms. Psaki said, and "allowing local school districts to make choices, as a number of these states are doing."

Although public health experts agree that school mask rules should not be in place indefinitely, they disagree on whether it is time to repeal them. In areas of the country where transmission is high, the C.D.C.'s current masking recommendations advise state and local officials to establish indoor masking rules.

On the agency's website, a color-coded map shows the whole country in red; 99 percent of all counties are in a high transmission zone, as Dr. Walensky pointed out on Wednesday.

The general people is naturally perplexed. With Omicron infections on the rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its position on various types of masks, noting that the cotton masks commonly used by Americans do not provide the same level of protection as surgical or respirator masks. Mr. Biden said a few days later that his administration would give 400 million high-quality N95 masks to the public for free.

According to numerous experts, the EPA now needs to quickly develop parameters for determining when masking and other mitigating measures should be lifted – and when they should be resumed. Dr. Wen described mitigation efforts as having a "offramp" and a "onramp," and said two aspects are crucial: whether hospitals and intensive care units have enough capacity, and whether immunizations and boosters are effective in protecting against serious disease.

"The limiting offramp ought to be their top concern," she added, "because this is what people, businesses, state and local politicians are worrying about every day."

The White House has recently consulted with Drs. Wen, Gounder, and Osterholm, among a long list of experts. Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general; Dr. Fauci; and Dr. David A. Kessler, the science adviser for the Covid response — none of the participants would describe the discussions, except to say that the administration officials present — including Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general; Dr. Fauci; and Dr. David A. Kessler, the science adviser for the Covid response — did more listening than talking.

Six former Biden transition aides asked the government to take a longer view and begin developing a pandemic playbook geared at "the new normal" in a trio of articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and medical ethicist who counselled former President Barack Obama, led the endeavour. Dr. Emanuel, Dr. Gounder, and Dr. Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, said in the first piece that the United States must avoid becoming trapped in "perpetual state of emergency."

They suggested that the administration set goals and specific benchmarks, such as how many hospitalizations and deaths from respiratory viruses, such as influenza and Covid-19, should trigger emergency mitigation and other measures, to be better prepared for inevitable outbreaks — including from new coronavirus variants.

Mr. Biden has already stated that he is not concerned about the pandemic. He stated the country is "working toward a period when Covid-19 won't interrupt our daily lives, when Covid-19 won't be a crisis, but something to protect against" during a news conference in mid-January. "We're not there yet," the president added at the time.Alsoread :https://arthparkash.com/english/mumbai-will-remove-all-covid-19-restrictions-