[ad_1]
There was nothing surprising about Joe Biden’s address to the nation about the coronavirus. However, it felt refreshing in its predictability. You could almost hear America breathing a collective sigh of relief.
It was the clearest message in the country about wearing a mask and it came from a small theater in Wilmington, not the White House.
The place where Joe Biden went to hold meetings and record messages was surrounded by policemen, Secret Service agents and armored vans. Very different scenes for the people of Wilmington and a very different tone on how to handle the pandemic for the American people.
“Please, I implore you, wear a mask.” Joe biden address to the nation it was a plea.
The tone was dramatically different from Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the virus will go away and politicized face masks very early in the pandemic. In doing so, Trump lost a powerful weapon to control the crisis and reopen the economy.
Mr. Biden, on the other hand, placed the face covering at the center of a unity petition.
“A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to unite the country,” he said.
“I want to be very clear. The point of wearing a mask is not to make your life less comfortable or to take something away from you.
“It won’t be forever, but this is how we reclaim our nation, accelerating economically again, so we can once again celebrate birthdays and holidays together.”
Joe Biden’s first Monday as president-elect was spent in a virtual meeting with his new coronavirus task force. He sent a clear message that he was not wasting time getting to work, a clear message that the transition of power is going ahead with or without the consensus of Donald Trump, and the pandemic is Joe Biden’s central focus.
While welcoming the news that Pfizer’s vaccine looks so encouraging, the president-elect cautioned that there are still many difficult months ahead. A new sign on the door of a Wilmington pharmacy “The COVID-19 vaccine is not yet available” still somehow offers a light at the end of a dark year for America.
Donald Trump junior was skeptical of the vaccine announcement, tweeting: “The timing of this is quite surprising. Nothing dire about the timing of this, right?”
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has spilled water on the claim that its news was in some way political; the data is said to be only available now.
:: Subscribe to the daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
While the country has been distracted by a controversial presidential election, the coronavirus crisis has broken new records and has now surpassed the grim milestone of 10 million confirmed cases.
Joe Biden will not formally enter the White House until January 20, and tens of thousands more Americans are expected to lose their lives to the virus before then.
While Donald Trump still shows no signs of acknowledging defeat in this election, Biden is making it clear to the American public how he plans to lead the country through its worst crisis since World War II.
