Biden’s Covid team is nervous about what the Trump team did not tell them

“We are not going to hide from the fact that this is going to be a tremendous effort that is going to require the hard work of millions of Americans,” Rep. Bill Foster, a Democratic Illinois member of the coronavirus subcommittee that participated, said. in briefings with Biden’s transition team and describe how their attitude comes into office. “It’s not going to be some magic solution.”

The mainstay of the Biden team is currently concerned about the provision of vaccines and the reversal of the faint spread attempt, although new strains of the virus are still a persistent concern for the incoming team.

One source familiar with the Biden effort acknowledged that a major gap that the incoming team will have to face is that there is currently no effective and reliable line of communication between states and the federal government.

Building federal involvement in coronavirus testing and vaccine distribution begins with building communication with each state to better understand their infrastructure and supply challenges, something that is expected to be a focal point in the early days of Biden’s presidency.

States are asking the federal government to release larger amounts of vaccine. However, it is still not clear whether there will be enough vaccine available to drastically accelerate the rate at which it can be distributed and administered.

Although there is optimism that additional vaccines will soon be approved for use in the United States, including the potential of a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, there are questions about whether they can be produced quickly enough to potentially significantly address supply problems.

Foster, the Illinois congressman, said getting information from the Trump administration about delivery schedules and vaccine production progress “was like pulling teeth.”

“And I understand the frustration of the Biden (team) when they see the same resistance that we saw, not about what was contracted and promised, but what the real milestones in vaccine production are,” he adds.

Retiring health officials in the Trump administration insist they have worked with the Biden team and had hundreds of meetings with Biden’s transition team.

The Biden team is unlikely to get a full scope of the vaccine production landscape before taking office on Wednesday.

The president’s chosen team has expressed concern about how they are trying to understand exactly how vaccine distribution is playing out – and what is slowing it down – in all 50 countries.

Although Biden’s team is well aware that they cannot federalize the vaccine distribution process with a thimble, the president-elect has promised that the federal government will play a much more aggressive role in streamlining the distribution of vaccines and the efforts to get Covid to limit.

But even if it comes to some signature promises – such as setting up the National Guard to carry out vaccinations – it will most likely fall to each state to determine what works best for them.

New variants of the coronavirus can be another serious problem for incoming administration.

The worst case scenario for Biden’s team is a variant that cannot be treated by the approved vaccines. But America’s inferior screening systems for monitoring new virus strains, combined with the enormous relationship with the outgoing Trump administration, add emerging variants to the thorny list of problems a Biden government cannot fully address before taking office .

“With the escalation of the pandemic and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to lift restrictions on international travel,” White House incoming press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted on Monday. “In fact, we plan to strengthen social measures around international travel to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”