There is a natural tendency for a new Administration to focus on the things it can control. Reshuffling boxes on organizational charts, creating multi-agency working groups, and ordering up studies and reports conveys an aura of competent governance. The risk is that the federal government will waste precious time and energy organizing itself instead of organizing a more effective response to the pandemic. The Biden Administration should begin with increasing the pace of immunizations, protecting nursing home residents, implementing the law on public health data collection and dissemination, and removing government barriers to over-the-counter, at-home, rapid tests.
