Top US doctor warns lack of transition ups COVID-19 threat
Al JazeeraThe US government’s top infectious disease expert is warning that a lack of coordination between outgoing and incoming administrations puts American lives at greater risk from the rapidly spreading coronavirus. President-elect Joe Biden’s top advisers said on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s refusal to begin a transition could jeopardise the battle against the pandemic and inhibit vaccine distribution planning. “You want to just essentially keep going.” Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the election means the Biden team lacks a clear picture of the groundwork within the government for a mass vaccination campaign that will last the better part of next year, says Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on January 20th.” Most dangerous phase Klain said consultations with drug-makers, including Pfizer and others, will begin this week. “We are in a very dangerous period,” said Dr Michael Osterholm, a member of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board and director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.