The measures of Biden and Harris to contain the covid-19 9:53
(CNN) -
President John F. Kennedy urged Americans not to ask what the country could do for them, but what they could do for their country.
When he takes the same oath of office next month, Joe Biden will plead with the nation to do the exact same thing, albeit in more prosaic terms.
This time with a call for all Americans to wear masks during their symbolic first 100 days in office.
The president-elect revealed the first galvanizing and altruistic national call of his administration in an exclusive CNN interview alongside vice president-elect Kamala Harris.
In it he anticipated an abrupt change of direction when he succeeded President Donald Trump.
«It is only 100 days to wear a mask, it is not forever.
Hundred days.
And I think we'll see a significant reduction, "Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper.
The president-elect implicitly acknowledged that the coronavirus could be reaching levels even more intense than its alarming current peak when he takes office.
Since President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) took office in the dark days of the Great Depression in 1933, the first 100 days have marked the cusp of power for a new American leader and often the most prolific period for victories. policies.
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Biden asks to use masks against the spread of covid-19
Like his Democratic ancestor, he will use the iconic opening moments of his tenure to summon an exhausted people to unite, in a common cause, with the help of new vaccines, this time to defeat the virus and save the economy.
Yet there is question whether Biden's calls for national unity will resonate with people who did not vote for him.
More after Trump's relentless attacks on the legitimacy of his victory in the presidential election.
But Biden's call to action and the use of masks may have greater urgency now that the coronavirus is taking hold in rural areas of the heart with comparatively rudimentary health systems, which escaped the first wave of infection that was concentrated in many cities. They tend to vote Democrats.
Biden's interview - the first since the election that also included Harris - underscored a complete correction of Trump's attitude toward the virus.
The pandemic has never been worse than it is now in the United States.
An American dies every 30 seconds amid record numbers of deaths and hospitalizations.
Doctors and nurses are exhausted after months in overflowing and under-resourced covid wards.
More than 276,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States.
The country set a new record for hospitalizations on December 3, Thursday: more than 100,667 people being treated for covid-19.
Yet the current president is ignoring the tragedy, while pursuing his fantastic lies and claiming that the election he lost by a comfortable margin was stolen.
Trump has frequently scoffed at the wearing of masks.
He is celebrating Christmas holidays inside the White House in defiance of his own government's health recommendations.
When he returned home from his fight at the military hospital for COVID-19, he turned to the cameras and removed his mask.
On the contrary, and if past behavior is any guide, it is conceivable that one of Biden's first acts after delivering his keynote address in just over a month is to put the mask back on.
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Biden asks Fauci to remain in his current position
In another sign of a new approach to the pandemic, Biden said in the interview that he had asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Trump has marginalized and insulted, to continue in his current role as the nation's leading specialist in diseases. infectious during the Government.
The president-elect announced an effective promotion for the globally respected expert.
"I asked him to stay in exactly the same position that he has held for past presidents, and I asked him to also be a chief medical adviser for me and to be part of the covid (response) team," Biden told him. to Tapper.
The gesture implies a return to continuity and science-based policymaking after Trump's savage presidency.
Biden emphasized that he and Fauci spoke about the fact that "there is no need to shut down the economy" if Americans are complying with other security protocols to prevent the spread of the virus.
And he noted that even before speaking, Fauci has been speaking regularly with Ron Klain, Biden's new government secretary, and the two forged a close working relationship during the Ebola outbreak.
The president-elect also said during the interview that he would receive the vaccine publicly to show the public his confidence in it.
"When Dr. Fauci says that we have a vaccine that is safe, that is the moment where I will go before the public and say that," Biden said.
People have lost faith in the vaccine's ability to work.
The numbers are already staggeringly low and what the president and vice president do is important. "
Earlier this week, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama pledged to receive the vaccine in public to help combat vaccine skepticism.
Biden said his three predecessors "have set the blueprint for what to do."
Congressional help for the covid-19 crisis
Biden called the $ 900 billion framework of a congressional aid package proposed by a bipartisan group a "good start," but said more help would be needed and urged members to focus on what Americans need most with. difficulties.
What is needed immediately is relief for people on their unemployment checks;
relief for people who will be kicked out of their homes after Christmas because they can no longer pay their rent;
relief from mortgage payments;
relief in all the things that are in the original bill that the House passed, "Biden said.
'People are really suffering.
They are scared to death ».
Biden's diametrically different covid strategy - in particular his call for Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his rule - is already being welcomed by medical experts who watch in horror as daily covid deaths skyrocket. more than 2,500 per day.
Even before the dreaded spike in infections after Thanksgiving.
"President-elect Biden, and his leadership and listening to scientists, believe that if we all wore our masks for 100 days, we would have a significant reduction in transmission of the virus," said Rick Bright, a vaccine expert who worked in the administration. Trump and that he resigned after warning that the Trump administration ignored warnings about the early spread of covid-19.
“Science shows that wearing a mask reduces the spread.
I think it would have a huge impact, ”Bright told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Bright is now on Biden's coronavirus advisory board.
California hospitals were treating 2,066 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
The figure broke a record for the highest number of covid cases since the start of the pandemic.
California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has warned that most regions of the state will soon cross the threshold he has set for a three-week stay-at-home order, which kicks in once ICU beds decrease by 15% of capacity in that region.
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Biden and Harris had differences on a number of issues when she ran for president, from her health care plans to her desire to see the Justice Department prosecute Trump after the current president leaves office.
However, Harris and Biden showed their alignment with the policies during the interview, which also offered some clues about the role and portfolio as vice president.
"We are full partners in this process," Harris said.
From the day Biden asked her to join him as a candidate, she said he has been "very clear to me that he wants me to be the first and last in the room" on important decisions.
"So, on every issue that affects the American people, I will be a full partner with the president-elect and the president."
Harris reflected Biden's position, for example, on how the administration would handle any potential investigation into Trump's conduct after he leaves office.
Although it is different from the tone he used towards Trump regarding his campaign.
Biden told Tapper that his Department of Justice will function independently and that he will not tell them how or who to investigate: "I'm not going to say they are going to prosecute A, B or C, I'm not going to tell them," Biden said.
"That's not the paper, it's not my Justice Department.
It's the people's Justice Department. "
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Kamala Harris' role in the Biden government
Harris, who served as California attorney general, echoed that call for independence from the Justice Department, drawing a clear line between the Biden administration's approach versus that of Trump.
“We will not tell the Department of Justice how to do its job.
And we're going to assume, and I'm saying that as a former attorney general-elect in California - I headed the second-largest Department of Justice in the United States - that any decision that comes out of the Department of Justice, particularly the United States Department of Justice, must be based on facts, must be based on law, must not be influenced by politics, period, ”Harris told Tapper.
When Tapper asked Harris what her portfolio would be as vice president, whether she would lead a task force against COVID-19, for example, as Vice President Mike Pence has done, Biden interrupted to say that he would answer the question.
He said he planned to recruit Harris for any more urgent need at one point, just as he did with President Barack Obama as vice president.
"Whatever the most pressing need I can't address, I am confident in turning to it," Biden said, noting that it was different from former Vice President Al Gore's approach, which was to manage a portfolio full of problems, such as the environment.
"Look, there's not a single decision I've made yet about the staffing or how to proceed that I haven't discussed with Kamala first," Biden said.
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