WASHINGTON — President Biden got straight to work on healthcare issues during his first day in office Wednesday, signing executive orders and taking other action on mask-wearing, a federal response to COVID, and re-joining the World Health Organization.
Biden signed an executive order on masks that asks Americans to “do their part — their patriotic duty — and mask up for 100 days.” It also requires masking and physical distancing in all federal buildings, on all federal land, and by federal employees and contractors. The order also directs the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services to work with tribal, state, and local governments to implement masking and distancing in their communities.
Another executive order mandates the establishment “within the Executive Office of the President the position of Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response … and the position of Deputy Coordinator of the COVID-19 Response.” The coordinator and deputy coordinator will both report directly to Biden, and their duties will include reducing racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 response, care, and treatment; coordinating federal efforts to produce, supply, and distribute personal protective equipment, vaccines, tests, and other supplies; and to expand the use of COVID-19 testing. The coordinators also will spearhead efforts to safely reopen schools, childcare programs, and Head Start programs.
As for WHO, the Biden administration will participate in a WHO Executive Board meeting this week, with Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force, leading the delegation remotely, according to a White House fact sheet. “Once the United States resumes its engagement with the WHO, the Biden-Harris administration will work with the WHO and our partners to strengthen and reform the organization, support the COVID-19 health and humanitarian response, and advance global health and health security,” the fact sheet said. President Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the WHO in May 2020 because he said it helped China — where the COVID-19 virus originated — hide its poor response to the virus.
At a press conference Wednesday evening, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked what COVID-19 precautions were being observed in the Biden White House. “Steps we’re all taking … include daily testing when we’re in the White House, it includes wearing N95 masks, and it includes stringent rules about social distancing and abiding by that in the building,” she said. “That keeps us safe, but the president has asked us to also be models to the American people, and that’s vitally important to us as well.”
Psaki also was asked about Biden’s level of involvement in negotiating the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package now being debated in Congress. “He will be very involved,” she said, noting that he was a senator for 36 years and served with many of the current senators. “The issue he wakes up every day focused on is getting the pandemic under control. The issue he goes to bed every night focused on is getting the pandemic under control. This package is a pivotal step to doing that.”
One reporter, noting that at least one Republican senator was already saying another relief package wasn’t needed, asked whether Biden might push for taking the relief bill through a budget reconciliation process, which would allow it to pass with fewer Republican votes.
“This plan is intended to relieve the suffering of the American people,” Psaki said. “So we hope and frankly we expect Republicans in Congress — and Democrats too — will support assistance that will bring relief to the people they represent…. He has already had a number of conversations with Democrats and Republicans, and those will continue. His clear preference is to move forward with a bipartisan bill, but we’re not going to take any tools off the table.”
Psaki also said Biden “remains committed to invoking the Defense Production Act to get the supply and materials needed to get the vaccine out to Americans throughout the country, and remains committed to his goal of getting shots in the arms of 100 million Americans in the first 100 days,” said Psaki.
A reporter for EWTN, a global Catholic news network, also asked Psaki about another topic — whether Biden was still planning to reverse the “Mexico City policy,” which stipulates that the federal government will not provide financial support to any overseas non-governmental organization that provides or promotes abortions. “We’ll have more to say on the Mexico City policy in coming days, but I will take the opportunity to remind all of you that he is a devout Catholic and somebody who attends church regularly,” Psaki said.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
