[NFA] President-elect Joe Biden introduced the team to lead his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, emphasizing the mass distribution needed to achieve his goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, while President Donald Trump took credit for advances in COVID vaccine development for "whichever the next administration is." Gavino Garay has more.
President-elect Joe Biden and U.S. President Donald Trump sent Americans vastly different messages on the coronavirus on Tuesday as U.S. cases crossed the 15 million mark.
Biden formally introduced key members of his 'Health Team' that will lead his administration's response to the pandemic, including California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra as HHS secretary - and articulated three goals... BIDEN: "Masking, vaccinations, opening schools..." ...developed together with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Biden vowed to enforce mask-wearing at the federal level where possible and to get Americans 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days.
BIDEN: "My first 100 days won't end the COVID-19 virus.
I can't promise that.
But we did not get into this mess quickly.
We're not going to get out of it quickly." Biden appointed Fauci as his Chief Medical Adviser on COVID-19 and said he'd continue in his current role as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Fauci was notably absent from Trump's 'Operation Warp Speed' event at the White House, where Trump celebrated the breakneck speed of new vaccines for the coronavirus.
TRUMP: "But whichever the next administration is will really benefit by what we have been able to do with this incredible science." Trump also seemed upbeat when asked about the recent surge in coronavirus cases, seeing it as a possible public good.
REUTERS REPORTER JEFF MASON: "I'm wondering, though, what your message is to the American people, given all the increasing cases right now?" TRUMP: "You do have an immunity, you develop immunity over a period of time.
I hear we're close to 15 percent.
I'm hearing that.
And that is terrific, that's a very powerful vaccine in itself." The FDA is expected to approve emergency use for the first vaccine to fight COVID-19 later this week -- a pandemic that killed 15,000 Americans in the last week alone.
