President Joe Biden has promised swift action to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, proposing a $400 billion plan to help streamline vaccination efforts, improve testing and support jobs, among other things.
Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF, is hopeful.
"We have big opportunities here with the new administration and early signals suggest to us that things will change," she told KCBS Radio's "As Prescribed" program.
Dr. Bibbins-Domingo said she is excited about four things: a shift to a focus on science; improved logistics for vaccine distribution; a focus on equity; and a different style of leadership and communication.
"That type of empathic leadership that…really can speak to people that - we’re tired in this pandemic. We really need communication that recognizes how tired we all are of living in this current state, and can help rally us to continue to do the things we need to do," she said.
She thinks the call to wear masks for 100 days has "a nice ring to it," and that the timing is compatible with the urgent need to get the current surge under control.
"If we can speak and rally around 100 days of masking, I think that’s great," she said. "The challenge is we - realistically speaking - will need many more than 100 days. We are at a point in pandemic where the vaccines offer the light at the end of tunnel, but we clearly are in very long tunnel."
Fixing the problems with vaccine distribution will be key.
"What we’ve seen (the Trump administration) do well is to actually get vaccines developed," she said. "What we have seen not work well is when both the feds and the state and local governments have to work in conjunction. Nothing more clearly indicates the need for partnership like this as the vaccination campaigns."
Read the full text of Biden's 200-page plan here.
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