NCPA Supports Biden-Harris COVID-19 National Strategy

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) has issued a statement to express its approval of the Biden administration’s coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) national strategy and commitment to work with President Biden in executing this strategy, as well as other initiatives moving forward.¹

Nearly a year after the virus first hit the US, more than 400,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19. The blending of politics and public health throughout 2020 has also divided the country and crushed public confidence in the government’s pandemic response and vaccination effort. “America deserves a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is driven by science, data, and public health – not politics,” the document reads. The first goal of Biden’s COVID-19 strategy is to restore trust with the American people.²

Related: Survey: Majority of Pharmacists Confident in COVID-19 Vaccine

NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA, applauded the COVID-19 national strategy.¹ “We are eager to work with the new administration on these and other important initiatives, and applaud its efforts thus far. NCPA and the more than 21,000 independent pharmacies stand ready to assist.”

Hoey also emphasized independent community pharmacies as key health care partners in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. “Small business neighborhood pharmacy has been engaged in the fight against the coronavirus from the start, jumping to action and installing plexiglass barriers, upping their delivery services, starting curbside pick-up, compounding hand sanitizer, and offering testing and, when possible, the COVID-19 vaccines. Similarly, the Biden administration is jumping quickly to work to join the battle, continue getting vaccines into people’s arms, and provide relief,” Hoey said in a press release.

President Biden’s National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness is organized around 7 main goals:²

1. Restore trust with the American people
2. Implement a safe, effective, and comprehensive vaccination campaign
3. Mitigate the spread of the virus by expanding masking, testing, data, treatments, health care workforce, and clear public health standards
4. Immediately expand emergency relief and employ the Defense Production Act
5. Safety reopen schools, businesses, and travel while protecting workers
6. Protect those at highest risk and prioritize equity of health, including across racial, ethnic, and rural/urban lines
7. Restore US leadership globally and build effective measures to prepare for future health care threats

As part of the strategy’s first initiative, the Biden-Harris administration have restored the White House Directorate on Global Health Security and Biodefense, will conduct regular public briefings on the state of the pandemic, and engage with the public, state and local leaders, the private sector unions, community volunteers, and health care providers – prioritizing vulnerable communities – to rebuild confidence in the government’s COVID-19 response.

“We’ve shared with the administration how, when engaged by local health departments, community pharmacies are successfully battling the COVID-19 disease,” Hoey said in the statement. “As demonstrated in the success of vaccine rollout plans in places like West Virginia, Arkansas, and Alaska, small business independent pharmacies must be included in COVID-19 immunization strategies, whether federal or local, if those plans are to be realized,” he continued.

References

1. NCPA Applauds Biden Administration COVID-19 Strategy. News Release. NCPA; January 22, 2021. Accessed January 26, 2021. https://ncpa.org/newsroom/news-releases/2021/01/22/ncpa-applauds-biden-administration-covid-19-strategy.
2. President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness. WhiteHouse.gov: January 21, 2021. Accessed January 26, 2021. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf