Biden calls Trump pandemic effort a 'travesty' and vows extensive federal effort to blunt virus spread

 

Biden said he would invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of coronavirus vaccines. The law, enacted in 1950, gives the president the power to compel companies to produce and distribute supplies.

In the earliest weeks of the pandemic, Trump was criticized for not using the law to counter the country's shortage of ventilators and personal protective equipment for front-line health workers. Trump later invoked the act to require General Motors to manufacture ventilators and to order meat processing plants to stay open.

Biden said Trump's vaccine distribution efforts were falling far behind what had been promised and said he would "move heaven and earth" to bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic. But he also warned Americans that the worst of the coronavirus assault - "maybe the toughest of this entire pandemic" - remained ahead of them, despite early rounds of vaccinations underway.

With domestic air travel hitting record highs over the holiday weekend, Biden said he anticipated that infections now would produce increased cases in January and increased deaths in February.

"I can see a return to normalcy in the next year," Biden said, but he warned that the country might not see improvements until well into March. "I know it's hard to hear, but it's the truth."

He said the nation needed not only more vaccines and protective equipment but also a massive increase in testing to stem outbreaks that by now are occurring nationwide.

"After 10 months of the pandemic, we still don't have enough testing," he said. "It's a travesty."

As he has for months, Biden encouraged people to continue wearing masks, social distancing and practicing other measures to slow the spread of the virus. His remarks were his most extensive comments on the coronavirus since early this month, when he outlined a plan for his first 100 days in office that included imploring all Americans to wear masks.

"My ability to change the direction of this pandemic starts in three weeks," Biden said.

Earlier Tuesday, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris became the latest high-profile politician to be vaccinated in a bid to build public trust in the process.

The setting for her shot was calculated: the United Medical Center in Washington, which serves the predominantly Black communities of the city's Southeast quadrant and the southern part of Prince George's County, Md. Harris said she hoped she could allay the mistrust that many Black Americans are expressing about the vaccine by getting hers in a hospital that serves Black neighborhoods.

Biden's chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said earlier that the nation was suffering a surge of cases "that has just gotten out of control in many respects."

Fauci, appearing on CNN, lamented what he expects to be a post-holiday increase in cases and the strong possibility than January's caseload will exceed even that of December.

"You just have to assume it's going to get worse," he said.

Fauci also acknowledged that the rollout of vaccines was not reaching as many Americans as quickly as the 20 million the Trump administration had pledged by the end of the month.

"We certainly are not at the numbers that we wanted to be at the end of December," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "We are below where we want to be."

But Fauci expressed hope that by "showing leadership from the top," Biden could make an impact - comments that appeared to be an implicit criticism of Trump, who has said little publicly about the crisis since Election Day.

"What he's saying is that let's take at least 100 days and everybody, every single person, put aside this nonsense of making masks be a political statement or not," Fauci said of Biden. "We know what works. We know social distancing works. We know avoiding congregant settings works. For goodness' sakes, let's all do it, and you will see that curve will come down."

In his remarks earlier this month, Biden also pledged to distribute 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office and said he wanted to open as many schools safely during the period as possible. He has also promised to sign an executive order requiring masks to be worn on federal property. He reiterated those pledges Tuesday.

About 200,000 new coronavirus cases have been reported daily in recent weeks, with a record high of 252,431 on Dec. 17.

The nation's overall caseload surpassed 19 million on Sunday, even as the holidays were expected to cause a lag in reporting. Hospitalizations have exceeded 100,000 since the start of December and hit a peak of 119,000 on Dec. 23. Deaths are averaging more than 2,000 a day, with the most reported to date - 3,406 - on Dec. 17.

Harris chatted with her nurse, Patricia Cummings, as she received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine Tuesday, an event broadcast on live television.

Calling her "Nurse Patricia," Harris thanked Cummings, the daughter of immigrants from Guyana who has been a nurse for a decade and a half, for her work and chatted with her about her day.

If Harris had any reaction to the shot, it was hidden by the two masks she was wearing, and she told Cummings afterward that "that was easy" and that she "barely felt anything."

"I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless, it happens really quickly, and it's safe," Harris told a dozen or so reporters who had gathered for the event.

"We have hospitals and medical centers and clinics like this all over the country that are staffed by people who understand the community, who often come from the community, and who administer all year round trusted health care," she said. "I want to remind people that right in your community is where you will take the vaccine . . . by folks you may know who have been working in the same hospital where your children were born."

Biden received his first shot of the coronavirus vaccine last week.

On her way out of the room, Harris was asked for her thoughts on the House passing legislation to bump upcoming stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. Harris referenced a bill she introduced with Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., in May recommending $2,000 monthly stimulus checks.

"I urge Mitch McConnell to put my bill on the floor for a vote," Harris said, referring to the Republican Senate majority leader from Kentucky.

Biden on Tuesday called the deal a "down payment" and vowed to push for more coronavirus relief as soon as he takes office next month.