President-elect Joe Biden said he plans to increase Dr. Anthony Fauci’s role in his administration to combat the coronavirus pandemic in addition to asking the public to wear medical masks for 100 days.
The former vice president said he asked Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to remain in his post and become his chief medical adviser as “part of the COVID team.”
“You have to make sure, as he points out, that you don’t have to close down the economy like a lot of folks are talking about, if, in fact, you have clear guidance,” Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Biden revealed how he planned to issue an executive order that requires masks and said he’d make a plea to the public asking people to wear a medical mask for 100 days. He said his request would be limited to public spaces where he has authority, for example, federal buildings and interstate transportation, such as airplanes and buses.
“Just 100 days to mask, not forever. One-hundred days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction,” Biden said.
His proposal has been plagued by constitutional implications since he first floated it in August.
Following his predecessors, including former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, the two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator committed to getting stuck with the COVID-19 vaccination in public as well, once Fauci gave it his approval.
“I think my three predecessors have set the model as to what should be done,” Biden said. “Once Fauci says, ‘That’s my measure,’ then obviously, we take it. And it’s important to communicate to the American people it’s safe.”
Biden added: “People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what a president and vice president do.”
President Trump refuses to concede defeat in the 2020 election as his team continues to repeat claims of nationwide voter fraud, despite Attorney General William Barr telling the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Justice Department has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Despite this, Biden has continued to build his administration for his inauguration on Jan. 20.
