Biden team:
New health appointees detail priorities in coronavirus strategy.
WILMINGTON, Del — Presidentelect Joe Biden on Tuesday called for urgent action on the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced a health care team that will be tested at every turn while striving to restore normalcy to the nation.
Biden laid out three COVID19 priorities for his first 100 days in office: a call for all Americans to voluntarily mask up during those 100 days, a commitment to administer 100 million vaccines and a pledge to try to reopen a majority of the nation’s schools.
“Out of our collective pain, we are going to find a collective purpose: To control the pandemic, to save lives and to heal as a nation,” Biden said.
Topping the roster of picks was health secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, a Latino politician who rose from humble beginnings to serve in Congress and as California’s attorney general. Others include a businessman renowned for his crisis management skills and a quartet of medical doctors, among them Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist.
The usual feelgood affirmations that accompany such unveilings were overshadowed by urgency, with new cases of COVID19 averaging more than 200,000 a day and deaths averaging above 2,200 daily.
Vaccines are expected soon. Scientific advisers to the government meet Thursday to make a recommendation on the first one, a Pfizer shot already being administered in the United Kingdom. Indeed, President Trump held his own event Tuesday, to take credit for his administration’s work to speed vaccines.
But having an approved vaccine is one thing, and getting it into the arms of 330 million Americans something else altogether.
On Tuesday, the presidentelect warned that his team’s preliminary review of Trump administration plans for vaccinations has found shortcomings. And he called on Congress to pass legislation to finance administration of vaccines as they become more widely available next year. That would effectively close the loop, from lab to patient.
The rest of Biden’s extensive health care agenda, from expanding insurance coverage to negotiating prices for prescription drugs, will likely hinge on how his administration performs in this first test of competence and credibility.