One of the very constructive changes the CDC may be able to push through would be to restore rural health clinics in the southern black belt regions. In Georgia, for example, we don’t even have data on the number of covid deaths in the rural black belt because there is NO medical care of any kind available to these people. We know the death rate went up substantially during the pandemic and that’s about all we know. Rural clinics that used to service these communities have been eliminated. There are no hospitals. And so many of these communities don’t even have a doctor living among them. It’s miles and miles and miles to any sort of health facility.
The other thing the federal government could do is to mandate the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. With only two exceptions (LA and AR), no southern states have the Medicaid expansion – which leaves these rural, poor black belt regions without the means to obtain healthcare even if they can travel to it. Make Medicaid a federally run program, with delegation to states only if they show the willingness and ability to make it work. We do this already with the Clean Water Act. Do it with Medicaid too.