Officials reorganize HHS to boost pandemic response

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The Biden administration is reorganizing the federal health department to create an independent division that would lead the nation’s pandemic response, amid frustrations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move elevates a roughly 1,000-person office within the department — known as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR — into a separate division, charged with coordinating the nation’s response to health emergencies, according to seven people briefed on the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, and a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

The reorganization allows the division “to mobilize a coordinated national response more quickly and stably during future disasters and emergencies while equipping us with greater hiring and contracting capabilities,” Dawn O’Connell, who leads ASPR and would run the new division, wrote staff on Wednesday afternoon. The emailed memo was shared with The Post.

The creation of the new Administration of Strategic Preparedness and Response, which is expected to be phased in over two years, comes at a time of growing concern about the federal government’s ability to respond to health emergencies — whether to a once-in-a-century pandemic driven by a novel virus like SARS-CoV-2, to an outbreak of a long-identified pathogen such as monkeypox, which has established treatments and vaccines. The change also comes amid mounting frustrations within the government over bureaucratic delays that officials believe have hindered their work.

For instance, Biden health officials seeking to acquire more rapid coronavirus tests as the omicron variant surged last winter ran into challenges setting up the necessary contracts, said a senior administration official not authorized to comment. The reorganization would allow the office “to mobilize a coordinated national response more quickly and stably during future disasters and emergencies while equipping us with greater hiring and contracting capabilities,” Dawn O’Connell, who leads the emergency-response office and would run the new division, wrote to staff on Wednesday. The emailed memo was shared with The Post.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/20/biden-administration-aspr-independent-division/

[TheProle]

1. WHO: COVID triples across Europe, hospitalizations double

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Tuesday that coronavirus cases have tripled across Europe in the past six weeks, accounting for nearly half of all infections globally. Hospitalization rates have also doubled, although intensive care admissions have remained low.

In a statement on Tuesday, WHO’s Europe director, Dr. Hans Kluge, described COVID-19 as “a nasty and potentially deadly illness” that people should not underestimate. He said super-infectious relatives of the omicron variant were driving new waves of disease across the continent and that repeat infections could potentially lead to long COVID.

WHO said the 53 countries in its European region, which stretches to central Asia, reported nearly 3 million new coronavirus infections last week and that the virus was killing about 3,000 people every week. Globally, COVID-19 cases have increased for the past five weeks, even as countries have scaled back on testing.

“With rising cases, we’re also seeing a rise in hospitalizations, which are only set to increase further in the autumn and winter months,” Kluge said. “This forecast presents a huge challenge to the health workforce in country after country, already under enormous pressure dealing with unrelenting crises since 2020.”

https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-united-nations-world-organization-06bccc307fa13d428e59babf4b9d8403

[Hekate]

2. Excellent news -- intelligent president

[sybylla]

3. Better late than never, I guess.

I mean, the article is talking about SARS-CoV-2 like it's over. So let's fix that crap first.