Health and social policy

Executive Order 13997: Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatments for COVID-19

President: Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Directed HHS, NIH, Defense and Veterans Affairs to accelerate COVID-19 treatment research, improve clinical-care capacity, address treatment affordability and study long-term effects.

Status: Revoked.

Is Executive Order 13997 still in effect? No. Revoked January 20, 2025; treatment and Long COVID programs continue under separate authority.

A path leads past a hospital doorway, laboratory equipment and medicines, away from stylized virus shapes.
COVID-19 care and treatment research, illustrated symbolically; no treatment recommendation or clinical result is depicted. EO Explained · site-generated editorial illustration · not documentary evidence.

What does Executive Order 13997 do?

HHS and NIH were assigned treatment research and long-term effects work, alongside agency reviews of clinical capacity and coverage.

Administration position: The order’s findings and policy rationale were the Biden administration’s positions. This guide distinguishes them from implementation records and judicial rulings.
SignedJanuary 21, 2021
Lead officialsHHS/NIH, Defense, Veterans Affairs and COVID-19 Response Coordinator
Express timingPrompt plans, reviews and recommendations

Before and after

Before the order

Treatment trials, hospital capacity support and coverage programs existed but were not coordinated under this presidential directive.

After the order

Agencies supported therapeutics, provider capacity and the NIH RECOVER Long COVID initiative; those statutory and funded programs did not automatically end when EO 14148 revoked the order.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
HHS and NIHPlan treatment research and Long COVID studiesPromptly
Defense, HHS and VAAssess clinical capacity and treatment supplyPromptly / ongoing
HHSReview affordability and coverage programsPromptly

What happened next

EO 13997 signed.

EO 14148 revoked EO 13997.