U.S. President-elect Biden wants to do a “big thing”.
On December 3rd, Biden said in an interview with CNN that on his first day in office, he would ask all Americans to wear masks for 100 days.
“Just need to wear a mask for 100 days, not forever. Just 100 days. I think we will see a sharp decline in the number of infections,” Biden firmly said.
On the day Biden made this statement, the number of new confirmed cases and more than 2,700 new deaths in the United States in a single day exceeded 200,000, and the number of hospitalizations nationwide exceeded 100,000 for the first time. The epidemic is still very serious.
Current President Trump is silent about multiple epidemic data hits new highs. But it is not surprising that Biden, who will enter the White House on January 20 next year, issued a call for “100 days of wearing masks in the United States”.
However, can everything really go so smoothly?
The number of confirmed cases and deaths in a single day hit a new high, with more than 100,000 hospitalizations.
When the number of new confirmed cases in the United States exceeds 100,000 in a single day, many people find this number shocking. But many Americans did not expect that in a month, the number of new confirmed cases in the United States in a single day would exceed 200,000.
According to the data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on December 2, more than 200,000 new confirmed cases were reported in the United States, reaching a new high. On December 3, the number of new confirmed cases exceeded 200,000 again.
At the same time, hospitalization cases in the United States also hit a new high. According to the statistics of the coronavirus tracking project, on December 3, the number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the United States reached 100,667, the highest since the outbreak. The record high in hospitalizations means that the number of deaths may rise significantly again.
According to CNN, statistics from Johns Hopkins University show that more than 2,800 new deaths were reported in the United States on December 2, the highest number of new deaths in a single day since the outbreak of the epidemic. On December 3, 2,700 new deaths were reported.
And due to the soaring number of confirmed cases and hospitalizations, many experts say that the number of deaths in the United States in a single day may reach 2,000 to 3,000 in the coming period, or even more than 4,000. “This time next week will be more than 3,000 deaths per day — which is equivalent to 9/11 every day,” said Jonathan Reiner, a professor of pharmacy at George Washington University.
As of the evening of December 3rd local time, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States was close to 14.14 million, and the cumulative number of deaths exceeded 270,000.
Biden calls on Americans to wear 100-day masks and promises to reuse Fauci
In the face of another new peak of the epidemic in the United States, Biden once again called on all Americans to wear masks.
On December 3rd local time, Biden and Vice President-elect Harris gave an exclusive interview to CNN. Biden said in an interview that he would call on all Americans to wear masks on his first day in office, “just wear a mask for 100 days, not forever”. Biden said that as long as every American wears a mask, plus a vaccine, the number of cases will be “drastically reduced”.
However, according to the BBC, some constitutional experts pointed out that the President of the United States has no legal power to require the American people to wear masks. In response, Biden said in an interview that he and Harris will wear masks to demonstrate for the American people.
The President of the United States has executive power over U.S. government property, which Biden said he would use, ordering that “masks must be worn in all federal buildings” and “face masks must be worn in transportation, interstate transportation, on planes, and cars”.
In addition, Biden said he has invited infectious disease specialist Fauci to serve as chief medical adviser in his “new government” to become a member of the coronavirus response team and continue to serve as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Biden also said he and Harris would “vaccine openly” to dispel public concerns as long as Fauci said the vaccine was safe. Earlier this week, three former U.S. presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama all said that they would be publicly vaccinated to dispel public doubts about the vaccine. Former President Carter, 96, also issued a statement on December 3, encouraging all eligible people to be vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available.
Biden: Trump’s participation in the inauguration on January 20 is very important to the United States.
In an interview with CNN, Biden also mentioned several Trump-related topics.
CNN reporter Tapper asked Biden in an interview if he thought Trump should attend his inauguration – the presidents of the United States who will leave will usually attend the inauguration of his successors, but many people think Trump may not attend Biden.
Biden responded, “It was entirely his decision. It has no personal impact on me, but I think it is important to the country.” Biden also said that the decision had nothing to do with his personal feelings, but he thought the peaceful transition power from one government to the next was very important.
Biden has been acting mildly when it comes to the “chaos” of the Trump administration, the Guardian notes. But when it comes to the recently high-profile presidential pardon rights, Biden has become sharper. Recently, the U.S. media has repeatedly revealed that Trump is considering pardoning his family and cronies before leaving office, and even considering self-pardies.
Biden responded, “It worries me that such precedents will make other countries think of our country’s justice and laws.” He also said, “In our government, you will not see such a pardon, nor will we see us announce the new policy through Twitter.”
Biden also mentioned in the interview that he had received calls from “multiple sitting Republican senators” to congratulate him on his election as the new president. But so far, Trump has not admitted defeat.
