“President-elect Joe Biden plans to tap Rochelle Walensky, the head of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, as his incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Politico and Reuters reported on Sunday evening. Walensky, also a professor of medicine at Harvard, will replace Dr. Robert Redfield, who was appointed in 2018 and has been one of President Donald Trump’s main advisers during the coronavirus pandemic. The role is sure to be one of the most essential in Biden’s incoming administration as the nation reels from the threat of COVID-19. More than 281,000 people in the United States have died from the virus and the country has shattered records for rates of daily infections, daily fatalities and hospitalizations this month in what officials have declared the worst phase of the pandemic thus far. Several vaccine candidates have shown promising results and could soon be approved for widespread use, but healthcare leaders have warned the U.S. should prepare for a dark winter. The CDC has issued more dire public health guidelines in recent weeks, including urging all Americans to adopt “universal mask use” indoors anywhere except at home. Biden has been working quickly to assemble his team of health officials before he assumes office on Jan. 20. Earlier this month, the president-elect said he had asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, to serve as his chief medical adviser as he has done for six previous administrations. Fauci said he agreed “right on the spot.” “I asked him to stay on the exact same role he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the COVID team,” Biden told CNN on Thursday.
Biden Selects Marcia Fudge As Housing Secretary, Tom Vilsack For Agriculture
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["WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration,...
Trump Trade Adviser Violated Hatch Act With Biden Attacks, Watchdog Says
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["White House trade adviser Peter Navarro repeatedly violated a federal law that prohibits some members of the federal government from engaging in political activity, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel reported Monday...
Trump’s Parting Gift To Biden: An Even Worse Catastrophe In Yemen
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["Video credit: Skye Fitzgerald, director, Spin Film As one of its final foreign policy acts in office, the Trump administration could take a step that would push millions of people in Yemen into starvation and prolon...
Biden Predicts ‘Bleak Future’ If Congress Doesn’t Act On COVID-19 Aid
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["WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is predicting a “bleak future” if Congress doesn’t take speedy action on a coronavirus aid bill amid a nationwide spike in the virus that’s hampering the country’s e...
Biden Hints At A Mostly Virtual Inauguration Ceremony: ‘The Key Is Keeping People Safe’
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["President-elect Joe Biden — who received the most votes in presidential election history — may also end up having the quietest inauguration in recent memory. Biden hinted at a toned-down ceremony devoid of the usua...
Biden Says He Hopes Trump Attends Inauguration To Show ‘Chaos’ Is Over
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["President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday he hoped President Donald Trump would attend his inauguration next month, at the very least to demonstrate to Americans that the country had moved beyond the “chaos that he’s ...
Trump To Sell Arctic Refuge Oil Leases 2 Weeks Before Biden Inauguration
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["U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Caribou migrate onto the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska. The Trump administration will sell off rights to drill for oil in Alaska’s pri...
Joe Biden Looks To The Road Ahead, Says He’s Ready To ‘Fight Like Hell’ For America
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["President-elect Joe Biden candidly spoke on his plans for the future in an interview with The New York Times published on Wednesday, stating that his immediate goals are to pass a coronavirus stimulus package and bu...