Top officials on Tuesday said they are seeing a decrease in hospitalizations and have already received reopening plans from 41 states so far, which they consider encouraging. Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the top health experts on the task force, said the administration is keeping a close eye on long-term care facilities, group housing, Native American communities, prisons and workers that have group housing, in the hopes of quelling any oubreaks quickly.
All these developments are being taken into account, officials said, as they determine the necessity of the task force moving forward. The future of the task force will be based on the health conditions, aides said. Pence characterized the discussion of dissolving the task force as “preliminary.”
Inside the White House, there has also been discussion of creating a new and smaller group to supplant the task force — focused on developing a vaccine and therapeutics. Pence said this project, dubbed „Operation Warp Speed,“ is “almost like a Manhattan Project-style effort to develop a vaccine.”
Health officials and other aides inside the White House are not happy about the upcoming dissolution of the task force, given the ongoing spread of the virus, said one source familiar with the discussions. But in recent days the task force had been meeting less frequently as a group, said a second person familiar with the task force.
“We’re all still talking to each other, but we’re just not coming together every day for an hour and a half to talk at each other as a group,” the person added. “For the health folks who are doing this stuff day to day, maybe from their perspective, this is more of a stand down.”
The unwinding of the task force was first reported by The New York Times.
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
Source: politico.com
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