Biden urges Americans to wear masks to curb virus spread

WASHINGTON • US President-elect Joe Biden has made an urgent plea for Americans to wear masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus, declaring that "a mask is not a political statement" as he vowed to make defeating the pandemic his No. 1 priority when he replaces Mr Donald Trump on Jan 20.

"It doesn't matter who you voted for, where you stood before election day," Mr Biden said in short remarks in Delaware on Monday after meeting members of a newly formed Covid-19 advisory board.

"It doesn't matter your party, your point of view. We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months."

He added: "Not Democratic or Republican lives - American lives."

The magnitude of his task became starkly clear on Sunday as the nation surpassed 10 million cases and sank deeper into the grip of what could become the worst chapter yet of the pandemic.

In his remarks, the President-elect said the grim statistics suggested that the country was "facing a very dark winter" ahead.

"Infection rates are going up. Hospitalisations are going up. Deaths are going up," Mr Biden said after listening to his advisers during their virtual meeting.

Drugmaker Pfizer announced on Monday that an early analysis of its vaccine trial suggested it was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about the pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people.

Mr Biden called the development "excellent news" in a statement but cautioned that Americans would need to rely on basic precautions in order to "get back to normal as fast as possible". He said Americans would not be wearing masks forever but should do so until the vaccine is readily available.

"It's clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come," he said. "The challenge before us right now is still immense and growing."

But while Mr Biden would like to see a national mask mandate, his advisers have concluded he does not have the legal authority to impose one. So he will try to increase mask wearing in other ways.

He has already said that, as president, he would require masks on all federal property, an executive order that could have wide reach and is likely to come in the first hours or days of his presidency.

Mr Biden's comments about masks were a striking contrast with Mr Trump, who has spent the past eight months dismissing or playing down the need for Americans to wear masks, saying frequently - and falsely - that there was deep disagreement about whether masks were effective.

As cases surge in over half of the country, its worsening outlook comes at an extremely difficult juncture: Mr Trump, who remains in office until January, is openly at odds with his own coronavirus advisers - including about mask-wearing - and winter, when infections are only expected to spread faster, is coming.

Mr Biden named Dr Rick Bright, a former top vaccine official in the Trump administration who submitted a whistleblower complaint to Congress, as a member of the Covid-19 task force advising him during the transition, officials announced on Monday morning.

Mr Biden had already revealed the three co-chairs of the 13-member panel: Dr Vivek Murthy, a surgeon general under then President Barack Obama; Mr David Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; and Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of public health at Yale University.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has repeatedly clashed with President Trump over the management of the pandemic, told CNN on Monday he believes he will stay in his current role through the remainder of the Trump administration and into the Biden administration.

Mr Trump, who is trying to contest his loss in last week's presidential election to Mr Biden in the courts, has publicly criticised Dr Fauci, the country's leader on fighting infectious diseases.

NYTIMES, REUTERS