Biden to urge people to wear masks for 100 days, wants Fauci on board

WASHINGTON: US Presidentelect Joe Biden has said that on his first day in office, he would ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days to help reduce transmission of the coronavirus that is again surging in the country with the world’s highest number of deaths and infections.

“I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask - not forever,” Biden said in excerpts of an interview to be broadcast on CNN.

He also said that he would publicly take a Covid-19 vaccine to demonstrate its safety to the public and pledged to retain the nation’s top adviser on the pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, when he takes office next month.

“People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work,” Biden told CNN in an interview set to air later on Thursday.

Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, met with Biden’s advisers on the pandemic earlier in the day. In the interview, Biden said he asked Dr Fauci to stay on as a chief medical adviser.

Trump at times has criticised Dr Fauci’s insistence on aggressive measures to combat the pandemic, which has now claimed 273,000 US lives.

Dr Fauci was, meanwhile, critical of a Covid-19 vaccine’s approval process in the UK. “They kind of ran around the corner of the marathon and joined it in the last mile,” he told CBS News. “They really rushed through that approval.” He later apologised, however, for his critique, telling the BBC that he meant “no judgement” of the British process.

As part of his response effort, Biden will tap former Obama administration official Jeffrey Zients as his White House coronavirus coordinator, a Biden ally told Reuters.

Politico reported that Biden adviser Vivek Murthy would return to his role as surgeon general, a post he held under Obama, but with a broader portfolio as the pandemic rages through the country.

Politico also said that Marcella Nunez-Smith, co-chair of Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, would play a key role in the incoming administration’s pandemic response, focused on disparities.