How the Biden team can spur vaccinations

President-elect Joe Biden says he’s going to ask Americans to cover their faces in public for the first 100 days of his presidency. Urging people to wear masks is entirely reasonable. It’s exactly what people should do to minimize coronavirus infections as vaccination proceeds.

Guiding America toward prudence in coping with COVID-19 is going to be no less important as vaccines become more widely available.

People need clear information and guidance about the vaccines’ safety and potential side effects, so that most people are willing to get the shots. If fewer than four out of five are vaccinated, it may not be enough to stem the coronavirus’ spread. Encouragingly, resistance to COVID-19 vaccines has been waning since news of their extraordinary effectiveness first broke.

As inoculations are carried out, there’ll be reports of side effects. This is inevitable. People often feel pain and swelling in their arms after getting the shot. Fever, chills, headache and fatigue are common. And a handful of people in the U.K. and in Alaska have suffered allergic reactions.

The public needs to be told what to expect — and to understand these reactions aren’t dangerous and go away quickly.

Biden’s administration should therefore move promptly to restore the Centers for Disease Control’s leadership in pandemic response. Regular public briefings on all the pandemic trends — the number of people infected and hospitalized, the number of deaths, the number of people vaccinated, the percentage experiencing side effects, any new side effects that might arise, and whether mutations in the virus like the one now reported in the U.K. are making it more or less transmissible or dangerous — can provide a clear account of progress against COVID-19. CDC experts can answer the public’s questions and address anxieties.

This won’t persuade all Americans to mask up, keep their distance and so on. These behaviors have become absurdly politicized.

The faster such intransigence fades in the months ahead, the faster the country can use vaccinations to achieve herd immunity. Once Biden takes office, the White House will at least be trying to unite and not divide the country. It’s about time — and with luck this will make a big difference in stamping out the pandemic.