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President-elect Joe Biden and his nominee for the office of trade officer, Katherine Tai
Photo: Susan Walsh / AP
The future US President Joe Biden has spoken of a "tragic milestone" in view of the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the US within 24 hours.
"More than 3,000 dead in a single day, the highest single death toll during this pandemic," Biden said Friday in Wilmington, Delaware.
"That's more dead in a single day than we had on 9/11 or at Pearl Harbor."
Biden referred to the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington and to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in December 1941. Biden again called on the US Congress to end the month-long negotiations and a new aid package in to resolve the crisis.
For the first time since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of deaths in the United States had exceeded 3,000 in a single day.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the number of new infections registered was more than 200,000 in the past few days.
On Tuesday, Biden announced a 100-day program to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, which he plans to implement immediately after taking office on January 20.
Trump's pressure on the drug agency
The incumbent President Donald Trump meanwhile put pressure on the FDA.
In a brutal tone, he called on the FDA for immediate approval of corona vaccines.
FDA chief Stephen Hahn should bring out "the damn vaccines NOW," wrote Trump on Twitter on Friday.
"Stop playing games and start saving lives !!!" The FDA called the president a "big, old, slow turtle."
The White House was apparently putting pressure on the U.S. FDA to release the corona vaccine.
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reportedly told FDA chief Stephen Hahn to hand in his resignation if the corona vaccine was not released by the end of Friday.
The Washington Post and the AP news agency reported unanimously.
According to the Washington Post, the threat led the FDA to reschedule its vaccine release schedule from Saturday morning to late Friday.
The FDA and vaccine maker Pfizer would hurry, it said.
The FDA had released a statement earlier that morning saying it would "work quickly to get it closed and get an emergency license."
Hahn was one of the signatories.
On Thursday, an advisory committee to the agency approved the use of the vaccine from Pfizer and Biontech.
Biden continues to expand his team
Future President Biden also introduced other cabinet members and high-ranking government officials he had nominated on Friday.
His candidate for the
office of Minister of Agriculture
is
Tom Vilsack
, who already held the office under President Barack Obama.
The current Congresswoman
Marcia Fudge is to
become
Minister for Housing
and Urban Development
.
The
Department of Veterans Affairs
is supposed to be headed by
Denis McDonough
, who was among other things chief of staff of the White House under Obama.
Susan Rice
is also expected to return to the White House
: Biden would like to appoint former National Security Advisor to Obamas
director of
the White House's
domestic affairs council
.
Biden's candidate for the
office of US Trade Representative
is
Katherine Tai
.
Should she be approved by the Senate, she would be the first American with Asian roots in the post.
Since his election victory, Biden has received praise for his personnel decisions in his own party as well as in the liberal public.
In the past few days, criticism was voiced for the first time.
You can read
an
analysis of
this in our newsletter "The Situation: USA 2020": The grace period for Biden has passed
You
can find out
more about the
dispute over the chief post in the Ministry of Agriculture
here: Biden's dilemma in the distribution of posts
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oka / ptz / AFP / dpa
