Joe Biden presents the roadmap to combat coronavirus

Washington dc– As President, Joe Well presented today the federal roadmap to combat coronavirus, which includes requiring masks on interstate air and ground travel, quarantine for international travelers, and the official return of the United States to the World Health Organization. Health (WHO).

“Our plan seeks to restore public confidence,” Biden said, after past President Donald Trump downplayed a pandemic that claimed the lives of more than 408,000 people, a total he fears could reach half a million as soon as next month.

Biden indicated that he will resort to the Defense Production Act – which Trump was reluctant to activate – to order “federal agencies and private industry to speed up production of everything needed to protect, test, vaccinate.” and take care of our people. “

“It’s a large-scale war-like effort,” Biden said in a White House presentation, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, federal epidemiologist and special adviser on COVID-19, Anthony Fauci and the White House coordinator for the response to the coronavirus, Jeff Zients.

Video featured Biden candidate for Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, general surgeon candidate Vivek Murphy, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky, and adviser on racial equity in health, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a native of the Virgin Islands.

The “National Strategy for Responding to Covid-19 and Preparing for a Pandemic” is a 200-page document, which coincides with the signing of executive orders aimed at strengthening federal government initiatives against viruses.

Early in the day, Fauci had a virtual meeting with WHO executives to announce the return of the United States to the international entity, from which the Donald Trump administration had disassociated itself.

Fauci informed WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the president had signed “the letters retracting the previous administration’s announcement to withdraw from the organization” and that they were transmitted to the WHO and to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres.

The U.S. government’s chief epidemiologist, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said he was appearing before the WHO on behalf of “Scientists, public health officials and front-line health workers, and community workers who have worked heroically for the past year against VOCID-19”

In another decree that aims to regain world leadership, Biden further stated that his administration “will treat epidemic and pandemic preparedness, health security and global health as the top national security priorities, and will work with other nations. to combat COVID -19 and seek to create a safe world protected from biological threats. “

The strategy disclosed by Biden indicates that masks will be required “in certain modes of public transportation and in ports of entry into the United States.”

The order with the precise mandate and language on the use of masks in airplanes, trains and buses, during interstate trips, had not been disclosed at the close of this edition, although it is known that it will include the use of masks in airports and ports.

For international travelers, the strategy indicates that diagnostic tests for VOCID-19 will be required before departure and quarantine for international travelers. It does not specify how the quarantine will be enforced.

Biden issued an order on Wednesday, as announced, to require the use of federally owned masks. State and local governments are also urged to require the use of masks for the next 100 days and citizens are being challenged to use them.

Another of the decrees extends the support of the federal government, with funds from the Federal Agency for Emergency Management (FEMA), to the use of the National Guard during this crisis.

Before taking office, Biden announced that he intends to distribute 100 million vaccines over the first 100 days and refer to Congress a “rescue plan” of $ 1.9 trillion (trillions in English) to stimulate the economy and address the health emergency.

The rescue plan includes both economic and health measures, which are included in the new federal coronavirus strategy.

For example, Biden highlighted the allocation of $ 350 billion to state and local governments, with the purpose of helping fund the costs of an emergency that has lasted for 12 months and will require many more months of action.

This “rescue plan” is the same one that seeks to allocate an additional $ 20 billion to vaccine distribution and $ 170 billion to help schools and universities reopen safely.

“Over the past year, we have not been able to trust the federal government to act with the urgency, focus and coordination we needed, and we have seen the tragic cost of this failure.”, Indicated Biden.

Released Fauci

Fauci said in a briefing that one point that differentiates the Biden administration from the previous one is that it is made clear that “if you don’t know the answer don’t guess.”

“The idea that one can come here … and let ‘science speak’, is a somewhat liberating feeling,” said Fauci, who was criticized by Trump when he made warnings about the severity of the emergency.

As announced during the transition, President Biden made official the appointment of Zients as the federal coordinator against the COVID-19 pandemic., To oversee the entire vaccine-related plan, the production of personal protective equipment, and diagnostic tests against the virus.

House House Republican minority number two Steve Scalise said Biden does not say his administration “inherited contracts for 300 million doses of vaccine for two approved vaccines and two in the final stage of clinical trials, ”which will ease the way for you.

Zients say, however, that “we haven’t had the visibility we would have wanted to have on” the supply of vaccines.

Biden, on the other hand, announced executive initiatives to extend until March 31 the moratorium against evictions and until September the pause in the payment of student loans and in the collection of interest.

In turn, he reported the return of the United States to the Paris agreement on climate change.

On the issue of immigration, Biden ordered the cancellation of the national emergency to divert funds and finance the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico – one of President Trump’s cover letters to his followers, maintain protections for the nearly 650,000 young people who entered the United States at the hands of their parents without government authorization (the “Dreamers”) and end the ban on entry of travelers from 11 Muslim-majority countries ((Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania and Yemen).

He has also called for the inclusion of undocumented people in the Federal Census, suspended the deportations of 4,000 Liberians to the United States and reviewed the priorities of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As soon as he arrived at the White House Biden sent to Congress a proposal to reform immigration laws, with the idea of ​​speeding up access to American citizenship for undocumented people and aid to Central American countries.

Another executive order prohibits discrimination at work at the federal government level because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

He has also signed an initiative that establishes a two-year ban for a trusted official in the federal government to lobby an office of the Executive or in favor of a foreign government.

Backtracking on other Trump initiatives, Biden has canceled the XL pipeline project, along with a review of past administration environmental regulations.

Biden has also canceled the 1776 Commission created by Trump, which historians argue distorted the history of slavery in the United States.