America is teetering on the brink of a humanitarian crisis as cases of COVID-19 hit an all-time high after nine painstaking months of trying to keep it at bay. While at the same time, two pharmaceutical companies have announced vaccines that will most likely be ready to be administered to the public in the next few weeks.
At a time when infection rates are skyrocketing, the faster the government can set up a system to administer millions of doses to the public, the more lives will be saved.
Meanwhile, President Trump is hunkered down in the White House fighting a losing battle to reverse the results of the election instead of spending his precious time working with the incoming Biden administration to fight the virus.
President-elect Biden discussed the importance of coordination between the incoming and outgoing administrations at a press conference on Monday.
“If we have to wait until January 20 to start that planning, it puts us behind, over a month and a half,” Biden said. “And so, it’s important that it be done, that there be coordination now.”
“More people may die if we don’t coordinate,” Biden told reporters on Monday. “How do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What’s the game plan? It’s a huge, huge, huge undertaking.”
On Wednesday morning, a Trump-friendly host on “Fox & Friends” broke Republican ranks by echoing Biden’s sentiments.
Brian Kilmeade called on Trump to start coordinating with Biden after the Democrat’s decisive victory earlier this month.
“I think it’s in the country’s best interest if he starts coordinating on the virus and starts coordinating with security with the Biden team and just brief them,” Kilmeade said.
He continued saying the administrations “need to coordinate on the transportation and implementation” of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“And [Biden] will see how thorough the planning has been so we don’t drop the ball in a little while,” he added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also believes it’s imperative for the Trump administration to begin working with Biden’s team on COVID-19. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that “of course it would be better if we could start working with” the Biden team.
“It’s almost like passing a baton in a race — you don’t want to stop and then give it to somebody,” Fauci said. “You want to just essentially keep going. And that is what transition is.”
A small but growing group of Republican lawmakers have urged the Trump administration to allow Biden to receive intelligence briefings to keep him abreast of global security threats before taking office.
Vocal Trump supporters in Congress, including John Cornyn, Lindsay Graham, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, and Chuck Grassley have all said the incoming president should receive briefings.
“Yeah, I think he should,” Graham told CNN. Adding, “I hope so” when asked if he expects Biden to get the briefings soon. Lankford said there’s “nothing wrong” with Biden receiving intelligence briefings before taking the oath of office.
Trump’s refusal to work with Biden is just another example in a long list of times that Trump has put his own interests ahead of his country’s. Throughout his entire administration critics and supporters alike have waited for the moment when he would suddenly awaken to the power of the office and start acting presidential for the betterment of the country.
We’ve got 62 days left and he still hasn’t accepted the challenge.
