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Biden has ambitious plans to curb the coronavirus. But they could face big hurdles in a divided coun [View all]
Source: Washington Post
Biden has ambitious plans to curb the coronavirus. But they could face big hurdles in a divided country and Congress.
His first order of business will be to call Republican and Democratic governors to urge them to adopt mask mandates and communicate the importance of social distancing
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Laurie McGinley
11/7/2020, 3:45:39 p.m.
President-elect Joe Biden made his election bid a referendum on President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But as he inherits the worst crisis since the Great Depression — a raging pandemic on top of a teetering economy — his plans to turn that around are set to collide with new political realities.
The closeness of the results underscore voters’ deep divisions about how they think the virus should be handled. And depending on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections, it is possible Biden will have to navigate a Republican-controlled Senate disinclined to support a greater federal role in testing and contact tracing, among other responsibilities now left mostly to the states.
“It’s going to be very challenging for Biden to implement some of the ambitious pandemic preparedness and response plans he has,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Time is not on his side either, as the country surpassed 128,000 cases on Friday, setting a record for the third straight day, and more than 1,000 people a day are dying — a toll that is expected to grow in coming weeks as the weather turns colder and many Americans retreat indoors. Projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington suggest the worst stretch of the pandemic is likely to hit in mid- to late January, just around the time Biden would take office.
Biden is expected to announce a coronavirus task force Monday, ...
-snip-
His first order of business will be to call Republican and Democratic governors to urge them to adopt mask mandates and communicate the importance of social distancing
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Laurie McGinley
11/7/2020, 3:45:39 p.m.
President-elect Joe Biden made his election bid a referendum on President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But as he inherits the worst crisis since the Great Depression — a raging pandemic on top of a teetering economy — his plans to turn that around are set to collide with new political realities.
The closeness of the results underscore voters’ deep divisions about how they think the virus should be handled. And depending on the outcome of two Senate runoff elections, it is possible Biden will have to navigate a Republican-controlled Senate disinclined to support a greater federal role in testing and contact tracing, among other responsibilities now left mostly to the states.
“It’s going to be very challenging for Biden to implement some of the ambitious pandemic preparedness and response plans he has,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Time is not on his side either, as the country surpassed 128,000 cases on Friday, setting a record for the third straight day, and more than 1,000 people a day are dying — a toll that is expected to grow in coming weeks as the weather turns colder and many Americans retreat indoors. Projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington suggest the worst stretch of the pandemic is likely to hit in mid- to late January, just around the time Biden would take office.
Biden is expected to announce a coronavirus task force Monday, ...
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/07/biden-covid-pandemic-plan/
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