President-Elect Joe Biden announced a team consisting of 12 members to act as his Coronavirus task force. The team will act to combat the virus during Biden’s transition into the presidency and after he takes control of the executive branch.
The board is co-chaired by Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale University; Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner under George H.W Bush and Bill Clinton during their presidencies; and Dr. Vivek Murphy, the surgeon general under the Obama administration.
Other notable members include Dr. Rick Bright, a Trump-administration whistleblower who criticized Trump’s response to the coronavirus as “dangerous and reckless,” adding that “it’s causing lives to be lost every day,” according to CNN.
Bright released an 89-page whistleblower complaint charging “an abuse of authority or gross mismanagement” against the Trump administration. In response, the Trump administration transferred him to the National Institute of Health, where he said he was sidelined.
The administration said he was “politicizing” the response to the coronavirus because he did not support hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug not yet proven to be effective against the coronavirus,” according to Fox News.
According to The World Health Organisation, there are currently more than 10 million cases and 240,000 deaths in the United States. The United States presently has more cases and deaths than any other nation, and the number of cases has been slowly increasing since Oct.
COURTESY // gage skidmore
The Trump administration has blocked Biden’s coronavirus response team from accessing government offices, secure communication lines, and classified coronavirus briefings, an action that has prompted responses from several Republican senators, exhibiting divergence within the Republican Party. “I don’t think they need to know everything,” said Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, according to the New York Times.
Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said, “President-elect Biden should be receiving intelligence briefings right now – that is really important.”
Biden’s team’s inability to access crucial coronavirus-related information will hamper his ability to oppose the coronavirus once he comes into office effectively. To circumvent the imposed roadblocks, Biden’s team has been using Signal, an encrypted messaging app that will keep foreign rivals from accessing the information passed around by the Biden team. The team has also been meeting with government officials in public locations.
The Biden coronavirus team has expressed concern due to a lack of communication regarding Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s division assigned to distributing a coronavirus vaccine. “We’re preparing to govern and lead this country on day one, but the lack of ascertainment presents a hurdle and delays those things, and prevents some unnecessary challenges that harm the American people,” a source close to the transition process told CNN.
The roadblocks created by the Trump administration are costing lives in the United States every day. Blocking an incoming team from being able to continue the work of the Trump administration because the president does not want to accept the election results is a political gesture that comes at the time of a pandemic that does not discriminate. The coronavirus will infect and kill more people as this unnecessary power struggle continues. Working together to curb this pandemic can not happen unless the Trump administration agrees to open communications to Biden’s team.
