President-elect Biden cheers virus vaccine progress, but implores Americans to wear masks
WILMINGTON, Delaware — President-elect Joe Biden is warning the United States is “still facing a very dark winter” as he unveiled plans for addressing Covid-19 pandemic.
Even as hopes of a vaccine lifted stocks, Biden said Monday another 200,000 lives could be lost before it is widely available.
Biden implored Americans to “wear a mask” to help fight the spread of the coronavirus — “no matter who you voted for.”
“We are Americans, and our country is under threat,” Biden said.
He noted masks could save the lives of older people, children and teachers and added: “It could even save your own life.”
Biden said he would be guided by science in laying out the framework of a pandemic response, starting with members of a task force he has appointed to prepare for his administration’s transition to overseeing it.
The team will be led by 3 co-chairs: former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, along with Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of medicine at Yale University.
In total, 13 co-chairs and members comprise the board, including former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Dr. Rick Bright, who made headlines earlier this year when he resigned from his role at the National Institute of Health and filed a whistleblower complaint over “an abuse of authority or gross mismanagement” at the Department of Health and Human Services on the Covid-19 response.
