'More People May Die' Without Smooth Transfer of Power and Vaccination Plan, Biden Says

By Bailey Aldridge, McClatchy DC

17 November 20

 

resident-elect Joe Biden warned Monday that “more people may die” without a smooth transfer of power and coordination with President Donald Trump’s administration on a coronavirus vaccine distribution plan.

The Biden-Harris transition team has moved forward with the transfer of power process, including last week’s naming a 13-member coronavirus advisory board, a White House chief of staff and agency review teams. Trump’s administration, however, has been stonewalling the transition of power, which has kept Biden from accessing important information, including about the pandemic, as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 2021.

While delivering remarks Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden was asked about his transition team’s need to access the Trump administration’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans and what’s the biggest threat to the delayed transition.

“If we have to wait until January 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind over a month and a half,” he said, according to C-SPAN video. “So it’s important that there be coordination now — now or as rapidly as we can get that done.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, expressed similar concerns Monday and emphasized the importance of smooth transition to the vaccine distribution process.

“The virus is not going to stop and call a time out while things change,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show. “The virus is just going to keep going. The process is just going to keep going.”

A stalled transition

The Associated Press on Nov. 7 named Biden the projected winner of the presidential election with 290 Electoral College votes and 50.9% of the popular vote to Trump’s 232 electoral votes and 47.3% of the popular vote.

But Emily Murphy, the Trump-appointed administrator of the General Services Administration, has yet to recognize Biden as the president-elect — a process called “ascertainment.”

Without her “ascertainment,” Biden’s transition team doesn’t have the access usually granted to the president-elect, including to government office space, funding and important national security information.

The team also lacks the ability to assess the current administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which “poses a serious risk to the U.S.,” John Podesta, co-chairperson on former President Barack Obama’s transition team, told NPR.

This comes as more than 11 million coronavirus cases and more than 246,000 deaths have been reported in the United States as of Monday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Ron Klain, Biden’s White House chief of staff, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “unfortunately” Biden’s team can’t have contact with Fauci or other public health officials without ascertainment from the GSA.

“Joe Biden’s going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. That has to be a seamless transition,” he told “Meet the Press.”

He also said “we now have the possibility” of a vaccine and that officials are making plans to implement it.

Promising vaccine results

Two vaccine candidates have shown promising results in the last week.

Drugmaker Pfizer announced Nov. 9 that early data show its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is more than 90% effective against COVID-19, and Moderna announced Monday that early results show its candidate is 94.5% effective.

Fauci previously called the Pfizer results “extraordinary” and on Monday said Moderna’s results are “very exciting,” according to CNN.

But he and other health experts have said even once a vaccine is on the market, most people in the United States likely won’t be able to get it until well into 2021.

On Monday, Biden called the distribution process a “huge, huge, huge undertaking.”