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Washington DCAs President, Joe Bien today presented the federal roadmap to combat the coronavirus, which includes mandating masks for interstate air and land travel, quarantine for international travelers and the official return of the United States to the World Health Organization (WHO) .
“Our plan is aimed at regaining public confidence,” Biden said, after President Donald Trump downplayed a past pandemic that killed more than 408,000 people, a total of which he fears could reach half a million next month. can reach.
Biden indicated he will use the defense production law – which Trump was hesitant to activate – to “order federal agencies and private industry to accelerate production of whatever it takes to protect, test, vaccinate, and care for our people. . “
“It’s a massive wartime effort,” Biden said in a White House presentation, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, federal epidemiologist and special advisor to COVID-19, Anthony Fauci, and White House coordinator for the coronavirus. response, Jeff Zients.
In video, Biden’s candidate for the Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra, the candidate for general surgeon, Vivek Murphy, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, and the wealth adviser participated. Racial in Health, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a resident of the Virgin Islands.
The “National Strategy for Responding to Covid-19 and Preparing for a Pandemic” is a 200-page document that coincides with the signing of executive orders to strengthen the federal government’s initiatives against the virus.
Earlier in the day, Fauci had a virtual meeting with WHO directors to announce the return of the United States to the international entity, from which Donald Trump’s administration had withdrawn.
Fauci informed WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the President ‘signed the letters withdrawing the previous government’s announcement to withdraw from the organization’ and that they were forwarded to WHO and the Secretary General of the United States. Nations (UN), António Guterres.
The US government’s chief epidemiologist, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said he would appear before WHO on behalf of WHO. Scientists, public health officials and primary health and community workers who have worked heroically against COVID-19 in the past year
In another decree seeking to regain world leadership, Biden further stated that his government “will treat preparedness for epidemics and pandemics, health protection and global health as top priorities for national security, and will work with other countries to combat COVID. to create a safe world that is protected from biological threats ”.
The strategy revealed by Biden indicates that masks will be required “in certain modes of public transportation and ports of entry into the United States.”
The order containing the mandate and precise wording on the use of masks in airplanes, trains and buses during interstate travel was not disclosed at the time of writing, although it is known to include the use of masks at airports and ports.
For international travelers, the strategy states that COVID-19 diagnostic tests are required before departure and quarantine for international travelers. It does not specify how the quarantine is enforced.
Biden, as he announced, issued an injunction on Wednesday requiring the use of masks on federal property. State and local governments are also encouraged to demand the use of masks for the next 100 days and citizens are challenged to use them.
Another of the decrees extends the support of the federal government, with resources 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 plans to distribute 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days and refer a $ 1.9 trillion “bailout” to Congress to boost the economy and address the emergency. area of health.
The rescue plan includes both economic and health measures, which are included in the new federal strategy against the coronavirus.
For example, Biden highlighted the allocation of $ 350,000 million to state and local governments, with the aim of helping fund the costs of an emergency that has lasted 12 months and will require many more months of action.
That “rescue plan” is the same one that aims to provide an additional $ 20 billion to distribute the vaccine and $ 170 billion to help schools and universities reopen safely.
“Over the past year, we could not rely on the federal government to act with the urgency, focus and coordination we needed, and we have seen the tragic cost of that failure.”Biden said.
Liberado Fauci
Fauci said in a briefing that one point that sets the Biden administration apart from the previous one is that it becomes clear that “if you don’t know the answer, you’re not guessing.”
“The idea that you can come here … and ‘let science do the talking’ is a somewhat liberating feeling,” said Fauci, who was criticized by Trump when he warned about the gravity of the emergency.
As announced during the transition, President Biden formalized Zients’ appointment as federal coordinator against the COVID-19 pandemic to oversee the entire plan involving vaccines, personal protective equipment manufacturing, and diagnostic tests against the virus.
House Republican Minority Number Two Steve Scalise said Biden is not saying his government has “inherited contracts for 300 million vaccine doses for two approved vaccines and two in the final stages of clinical trials,” which will ease the way.
However, Zients said that “we haven’t had the visibility we wanted on” the vaccine stockpile.
Biden, on the other hand, announced executive initiatives to extend the moratorium on evictions until March 31 and the pause in student loan payments and interest collection until September.
In turn, he reported the United States’ return to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
On the immigration issue, Biden ordered the cancellation of the national emergency to reroute funds and finance the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico – one of former President Trump’s letters of introduction to his followers – to protect the protection. enforce for those around 650,000 young people who have entered the United States at the hands of their parents without government consent (the ‘Dreamers’) and end the ban on travelers from 11 Muslim-majority countries ((Eritrea , Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan), Syria, Tanzania and Yemen).
He has also asked for the undocumented to be included in the federal census, to suspend the deportations of 4,000 Liberians in the United States, and to review the priorities of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
So soon it reached the White House Biden sent Congress a proposal to reform immigration laws, with the idea of speeding up access to US citizenship for undocumented migrants and helping Central American countries.
Another executive order at the federal level prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
He has also signed an initiative that imposes a two-year ban on a trusted federal government official from lobbying a board office or on behalf of a foreign government.
By pushing back other Trump initiatives, Biden canceled the XL pipeline project, along with a review of the previous administration’s environmental regulations.
Biden also canceled the Trump-instituted 1776 Commission, which historians claim distorted the history of slavery in the United States.