 So I am really pleased to see Joe Biden take COVID-19 seriously. In fact, on his first day in office, you could argue that he already proved he's taking the virus more seriously than Donald Trump ever did. And he already rolled out his national strategy to contain the spread of the virus, which is really important. So I'm going to go through key provisions from his national strategy. I think that a lot of this is going to make a huge difference. The first thing that he wants to do is make sure that he fulfills his promise of getting 50 million people vaccinated within the first 100 days of his presidency. That means he's got to get out 100 million vaccines. So 50 million people get dose one and dose two. Logistically speaking, I don't know that this is realistic, but the fact that he's pushing to get this done in and of itself is, I think, important. Now, if you're wondering why it seemed as if we weren't making any progress with regard to the distribution of this vaccine is because Donald Trump wasn't doing anything. Like if it seemed as if he just stopped being president after he lost the election, you'd be correct. Because as Common Dreams reports, Biden team says Trump vaccine distribution plan non-existent. There is nothing for us to rework, said one of President Biden's COVID advisors. We are going to have to build everything from scratch. Just think about this. Like let that sink in. The last president did nothing to distribute the vaccine. Nothing. It was non-existent because Donald Trump refused to act. How many more thousands of people are going to die? How much more behind are we going to be? Like I wouldn't have expected him to come up with a competent plan, but something that, you know, they can work with would have been nice. But it's just, it really goes to show you he checked out. And that last couple of months, he didn't care about anything. He was just sulking. He was mad that he lost the election. And this is absolutely shameful. But I'm glad now that we have an administration that's taking it seriously. I mean, love him or hate him. I don't ideologically align with Joe Biden on anything, basically. But the fact that he's taking this seriously, that does matter. That allows us to more quickly get back to normal or at least normal before the pandemic. If we can end this pandemic, we save lives. So this is priority number one to me. So let's go through some of the key proposals here. Besides his plan to distribute 100 million vaccinations. CNN reports President Joe Biden's first full day in office on Thursday focused on rolling out his national strategy to get the coronavirus pandemic under control and signing several executive actions, including ramping up vaccination supplies and requiring international. Travelers to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to traveling to the US. Now, additionally, he is utilizing the Defense Production Act to speed up production of testing kits, supplies for vaccinations and also for personal protective equipment, which is really important. On top of that, he issued a federal mask mandate, which is as comprehensive as he can be with the power that he has as president. So this is definitely something that I think we needed a long time ago. And there is a lot more like his plan is very comprehensive, so I can't possibly get to all of it. But I do want to at least go through all of the executive actions that he signed one by one. Because when you step back and look at all of this, what it amounts to is I think a really solid start like out of the gate. He very clearly is coming out swinging and I have to give him credit where it's due. So when it comes to executive actions, he signed one that accelerates manufacturing and delivery of supplies for vaccination testing and PPE. That's the one that we just talked about. Directs FEMA to expand reimbursement to states to fully cover the cause for national guard personnel and emergency supplies. Establishes the Pandemic Testing Board to expand US coronavirus testing capacity. Establishes a preclinical program to boost development of therapeutics in response to pandemic threats. Enhances the nation's collection, production sharing and analysis of coronavirus data. This is something that is crucial. Directs FEMA to create federally supported community vaccination centers. Directs the Department of Education and HHS to provide guidance for safely reopening and operating schools, childcare providers and institutions of higher education. Now we'll come back to this later because it's a lot more than just that. I think that it's important that there's federal guidance, but there's more on this that I want to touch on. Calls on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA to release clear guidance on COVID-19. Decide whether to establish emergency temporary standards and directs OSHA to enforce worker health and safety requirements. Requires mask wearing in airports and on certain modes of transportation, including many trains, airplanes, maritime vessels and intercity buses. International travelers must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to coming to the US. That's what we just talked about. Creates the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force to help ensure an equitable pandemic response and recovery. Also really important not to overlook this. I'm glad he's doing this. A presidential directive to restore America's leadership. Support the international pandemic response effort. Promote resilience for future threats and advance global health security and the global health security agenda. Also, we'll talk about this in detail a little bit later. Launches a 100 Days Masking Challenge. Asking Americans to wear masks for 100 days. Requires masks and physical distancing in federal buildings on federal lands. And by government contractors in URDIS states and local governments to do the same. Stops the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization with Dr. Anthony Fauci becoming the head of the delegation to the WHO. Creates the position of COVID-19 response coordinator reporting directly to Biden and managing efforts to reduce and distribute vaccines and medical equipment. Now, when it comes to us rejoining the World Health Organization, I think this is obviously a no brainer. We don't leave the World Health Organization during a pandemic unless you're a complete clown. But one of the concerns globally speaking was that richer countries would jump to the front of the line once a vaccine is available. And what he's doing is making sure that developing countries and poor countries actually get access to the vaccine as well. Because look, if rich countries get the vaccine first, but all of these poor countries are left behind. And globally speaking, that's not really going to do much to contain the spread of the virus. Because if we want to get a pandemic under control, which is contagious, you have to make sure that everyone is cured. Everyone is vaccinated so you can't just have this approach where the rich countries and developed countries get access to it. But third world countries don't. That's something that's unacceptable if we're realistic and actually want to contain the spread of it. So him doing this very important. You have to have a global effort to get this under control because this is a human issue, not just the US issue. Now, as for the executive order related to schools, he is filling in a crucial gap of what was missing with the Trump administration. I mean, there was just no federal guidelines on how to safely reopen schools. So this was managed on a state by state, city by city basis. And you know, when you have some states that don't take it seriously, this creates an unequal reopening effort. In the aggregate. So by him suggesting that we have federal standards to reopen schools. That is really important. But what I disagree with vehemently so is his plan, his push rather to reopen schools within 100 days. Like even in the best case scenario, let's say that he is successful and he gets 50 million Americans vaccinated and one sixth approximately of the population is now immune. Even in that instance, how can you say that that's enough to safely reopen schools? I mean, by then we'll have to see how many cases we're having per day, what the positivity rate is. But you can't just arbitrarily say I want to reopen all schools by 100 days because that's not something that you can just do if you truly care about health and safety. Like if cases are better by then and it's safe to reopen, then sure. But just having this goal to reopen schools within 100 days, you could be undermining your own effort to keep people safe. So you have to prioritize safety and not just arbitrarily reopening schools. And what he should be planning for is to potentially have schools, you know, operate remotely in the long term to provide funding for that. Don't just like arbitrarily say, no, we've got to open all schools because then you just sound like Donald Trump and Republicans. Having said that, though, that's really the only area of criticism that I have for him. You know, of course, the next component of this is economic relief, which House Democrats are saying is supposed to come soon. But overall, the totality of the executive orders that he signed related to COVID-19. I think this is absolutely necessary. This is what we've been needing to see. There's been no leadership at the federal level when it comes to COVID-19, which is why you see some states doing really good and some states doing really bad. Now currently, you know, we're in a third surge. Hopefully we're getting out of that as cases start to slightly decrease. But we have to have some leadership during a time like this. And it's important that he does this, establish standards, run a national strategy. Just show us that you care. And this is important. So I am very pleased so far. Like I'd imagine when we start getting into policy discussions, healthcare, I'm going to be furious with Joe Biden. But for now, he's off to a great start, at least when it comes to tackling COVID-19. This is really good. And I'm cautiously optimistic about this.