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 The extraordinary rebuke, weighing in on the White House
post-election transition fray, came in an open letter from three
leading healthcare organizations as state and local governments
scrambled to fight the virus in the absence of a coordinated
national strategy.
"Real-time data and information on the supply of therapeutics,
testing supplies, personal protective equipment, ventilators,
hospital bed capacity and workforce availability to plan for further
deployment of the nation’s assets needs to be shared to save
countless lives," said the letter, signed by heads of the American
Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the
American Hospitals Association.
The letter was published a day after Biden, the victor in the
tumultuous Nov. 3 election that Trump has refused to concede, warned
"more people may die" if the incumbent president keeps blocking a
smooth succession to the next administration in January.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, co-chair of Biden's COVID-19 taskforce, said
Tuesday he and other medical advisers had been unable to discuss the
pandemic with current administration officials, an obstacle that
could compromise the U.S. response to the virus.
The soaring rate of new cases this fall has stricken even rural
areas that had dodged the worst of the pandemic over the summer.
Government officials in at least 17 states representing both ends of
America's political divide have issued sweeping new public health
mandates this month. These range from stricter limits on social
gatherings and non-essential businesses to new requirements for
wearing masks in public places.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease
specialist, said the country would be better served by a "uniform
approach" to fighting the pandemic.
"We need some fundamental public health measures that everyone
should be adhering to, not a disjointed, 'One state says one thing,
another state says another thing,'" Fauci said in a New York Times
interview.
Health experts say greater social mixing and indoor gatherings
during the holiday season, combined with colder weather, will
accelerate the COVID-19 surge that has sent infections and
hospitalizations to record levels in recent weeks.
SUPERSPEADER WEDDING
Forty-one U.S. states have reported daily record increases in
COVID-19 cases in November, 20 have registered new all-time highs in
coronavirus-related deaths from day to day, and 26 have reported new
peaks in hospitalizations, according to a Reuters tally of public
health data.
Twenty-five states reported 10% of COVID-19 diagnostic tests coming
back positive for the week ending on Sunday, Nov. 15. The World
Health Organization considers a positivity rate above 5% to be
concerning.
Illustrating the risks of large social gatherings, health officials
this week linked a Nov. 7 wedding that drew some 300 guests to a
private location near the town of Ritzville in eastern Washington
state to at least 17 COVID-19 infections and two subsequent
outbreaks.
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In a sign of strains on hospital workers, over 700 nurses at St.
Mary Medical Center in eastern Pennsylvania went on strike Tuesday
to protest staffing levels they said were too thinly stretched to
provide adequate patient care.
The two-day walkout was called after the hospital and the
Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals
deadlocked in talks over working conditions as rising COVID-19
admissions pushed the facility near capacity, the union said.
The governors of Ohio and Maryland on Tuesday became the latest to
place curfews on bars and restaurants to reduce the virus' spread
this winter, while the prospect of a widely available vaccine is
still months away.
"We're not shutting down, we're slowing down," Mike DeWine of Ohio
said in unveiling the 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew in his state. "We
have to flatten this curve again and get this under control."
A similar curfew ordered by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was
accompanied by new restrictions limiting indoor capacity of
businesses and organizations to 50% of normal.
"We are in a war right now and the virus is winning," Hogan told
reporters.
MIDWEST HARDEST HIT
The United States crossed 11 million total infections on Sunday,
just eight days after reaching the 10 million mark. The Midwest
remains the hardest-hit U.S. region during the latest wave of
infections, reporting almost half-million cases in the week ending
on Monday.
The number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in the United States
climbed to a record of 73,140 on Monday, and hospitalizations have
increased over 46% in past 14 days, according to a Reuters tally.
Several state officials also have urged citizens to exercise caution
around the Thanksgiving holiday and not travel or socialize with
extended family for the traditional indoor feast.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was even more forward-looking in
her holiday warnings, announcing on Tuesday that the city's Mardi
Gras parades would be canceled in February.
"Experts are predicting a 'winter spike' in cases this winter in
December and January – right when our carnival calendars get
rolling," Cantrell said on the city's website.
(Reporting and writing by Gabriella Borter and Steve Gorman;
Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Brendan O'Brien, Rich McKay,
Maria Caspani, Lisa Shumaker and Anurag Maan; Editing by David
Gregorio, Bill Tarrant and Michael Perry)
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