Nearly 3,000 people have died from COVID-19 since the start of November, and as cases continue to spike nationwide the need grows more dire for the Trump and incoming Biden administrations to strategize, particularly when it comes to vaccine distribution and potential federal health mandates.
However, the Trump administration’s unwillingness to begin steps to transition power to President-elect Joe Biden is preventing him from creating a national response, said Kathleen Sebelius, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama.
“Where we will be on the 20th of January could be very, very scary,” Sebelius told Cheddar.
“What is already a daunting task for the vice president, is made considerably harder by the inability of the transition team to have a handoff of knowledge: to get inside agencies, to talk to the coronavirus task force that Donald Trump set up, to look at what the logistics plans are to begin working with governors on a vaccination plan.”
Although transitioning into the White House has been made difficult by the incumbent, the Biden administration has begun setting his plans in motion to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice president has already appointed key figures to his administration that have experience in handling pandemics, including chief of staff pick Ron Klain.
Largely critical of the president’s coronavirus response, Sebelius still praised the Trump administration’s ability to get behind a program that has yielded, so far, two potential vaccines.
With Moderna and Pfizer both on track to apply for emergency use approval of their promising COVID-19 vaccines, the need to coordinate distribution plans between administrations is evident.
Sebelius noted that many large-scale steps will be needed for this "massive" undertaking and added that “having the Trump administration refuse to share information with Joe Biden’s team, not giving them governors’ plans, not telling them what logistics have been set up, is really criminal.”
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 a.m. eastern, as everyone awaits the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.
The Supreme Court is allowing Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now.
Rep. John Moolenaar has requested an urgent briefing from the White House after Trump supported a deal giving Americans a majority stake in TikTok.
A new report finds the Department of Government Efficiency’s remaking of the federal workforce has battered the Washington job market and put more households in the metropolitan area in financial distress.
A new poll finds U.S. adults are more likely than they were a year ago to think immigrants in the country legally benefit the economy. That comes as President Donald Trump's administration imposes new restrictions targeting legal pathways into the country. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds Americans are more likely than they were in March 2024 to say it’s a “major benefit” that people who come to the U.S. legally contribute to the economy and help American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. At the same time, perceptions of illegal immigration haven’t shifted meaningfully. Americans still see fewer benefits from people who come to the U.S. illegally.
