Joe Biden warned that a “dark winter” was ahead as the nation battled the coronavirus pandemic and warned that President Donald Trump’s refusal to start the transition process could result in more deaths.
The president-elect spoke about the economy devastated by the pandemic after holding a virtual meeting with CEOs and union leaders, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Monday.
“We all agree that we want to get the economy back on track. We need our workers to return to work and that means the virus is under control, ”he said.
“We are entering a very dark winter. Things are going to get harder before it gets easier, ”he warned as coronavirus cases are on the rise in the United States. There have been over 11 million cases of the disease in the United States and the average daily rate is over 100,000.
Joe Biden warned a ‘gloomy winter’ was coming as nation battled coronavirus and also called on the Trump administration to give his transition team access to their plan to distribute a COVID vaccine.
“The sooner we have access to the administration’s distribution plan, the faster this transition will go smoothly,” he said.
“More people are at risk of dying if we don’t coordinate,” he added.
“How do we get more than 300 million Americans vaccinated, what’s the plan of action?” It’s a huge, huge undertaking to do that and to put the most disadvantaged first and work our way through them, ”he said. “And they say they had this warp speed program that they were dealing with not only getting the vaccines but also how to distribute them. “
He argued that waiting for the opening day was too long given the severity of the pandemic.
“If we have to wait until January 20 to start this plan, it puts us a month behind schedule,” he said.
The formal transition process is stuck in President Trump’s refusal to concede the election to his Democratic rival. The General Service Administration is the agency that officially begins the transfer of power, but its head, appointed by Trump, has refused to initiate the process.
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