Biden keeps to firm line on virus vigilance
Stick to masks, the Democrat urges, amid raised spirits in US on vaccine
Even as spirits were lifted by encouraging news on a COVID- 19 vaccine in the US on Monday, Joe Biden stepped up his calls for people to wear masks to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Democrat Biden, who was named by most media outlets as the winner of the 2020 US presidential election, was commenting after drug giant Pfizer said its COVID- 19 vaccine may be 90 percent effective.
Pfizer said the results were based on early and incomplete test results, but that it was on track to file an emergency use request with regulators later this month. Shares in Pfizer jumped more than 7.5 percent after the company’s announcement.
Biden, who has begun preparations to move into the White House, called the development “excellent news” in a statement. But he cautioned that “for the foreseeable future, the mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus’’. “Today’s news does not change that reality,” he said in a speech from Wilmington, Delaware.
“We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democratic or Republican lives, American lives.
“I implore you, wear a mask, do it for yourself, do it for your neighbor. A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together.”
While Biden has repeatedly called on people to wear face masks, US President Donald Trump, a Republican, at times has endorsed them but sometimes downplayed their use.
“The election is over,” Biden said. “It’s time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric designed to demonize one another. … We’re united in our shared goal: defeating this virus.”
Biden declared victory in the Nov 3 presidential election at the weekend. Trump hasn’t conceded and has begun legal challenges.
‘ Plans built on science’
Biden’s speech followed a briefing from a 13- member coronavirus advisory task force he had named earlier on Monday. The panel would “advise on detailed plans built on a bedrock of science”, he said.
The task force plans to focus on a number of initiatives, including ramping up the production and distribution of personal protective equipment to medical centers nationwide.
“I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we’re sworn in on Jan 20,” Biden said. “We’ ll follow the science.”
The task force includes former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, Marcella Nunez- Smith of Yale University, and Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Biden also named Rick Bright, a former top vaccine official in the Trump administration who submitted a whistleblower complaint to Congress, as a member of the task force advising him during the transition, officials announced on Monday morning.
Bright, who was ousted as the head of a federal medical research agency, told lawmakers that officials in the government had failed to heed his warnings about acquiring masks and other supplies, and that the failure to act may have cost lives in the US.
“Infection rates are going up. Hospitalizations are going up. Deaths are going up,” Biden said after listening to his coronavirus advisers, who called into the meeting remotely.
As of early Tuesday, there had been more than 10 million confirmed COVID- 19 cases in the US and more than 238,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
In the past week, one of every 433 people in the US was diagnosed with COVID- 19, and hospitals in several states are running out of space.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in September called face coverings “the most powerful public health tool” in the fight against COVID- 19 — possibly even more effective than a potential vaccine.
Pfizer’s announcement also helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average to finish up nearly 3 percent, or by 835 points, after soaring as much as 1,610 points in the morning. It was the benchmark index’s best performance since June.