With the Associated Press calling Biden as the forty-sixth President of the United States, there are multiple actions Biden plans to put in effect once he is sworn in as President. On joebiden.com, there is a list of actions Biden and Harris plan to enact once they’re in office. 

First, they plan to straighten out the testing-and-tracing problems. Biden and Harris plan to double the amount of drive-thru testing sites across the country, invest in next-generation sequence testing for COVID-19, producing a Pandemic Testing Board, similar to Roosevelt’s War Production Board, so equipment and supplies can be produced at a much faster rate and establish a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corporation to provide support for at risk Americans.

Secondly, Biden and Harris want to fix personal protective equipment, PPE, for good. PPE is equipment worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses, and what Biden and Harris want to fix is the lack of PPE in the states. They plan to use the Defense Protection Act to accelerate production of PPE for the whole nation, especially focusing on hard hit areas who need as much PPE as possible to protect themselves, and to start building a future America who is fully capable for any future crisis and not dependent on other countries.

Thirdly, Biden and Harris plan to provide clear and consistent guidance and resources for communities across America. Biden plans to work with the CDC to ensure social distancing and reopening businesses and schools can happen simultaneously, and he plans to establish a renewable fund for state and local governments to help prevent budget shortfalls. Additionally, Biden plans to call on Congress to pass an emergency care package to help schools to have the resources and supplies they need to remain open while keeping children safe and for Congress to pass a “restart package” for small businesses including the supplies required for the small business to reopen for free.

Fourthly, Biden and Harris have a plan to provide an effective and equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines to combat COVID-19. They plan to accomplish this by investing $25 million in manufacturing and distributing vaccines throughout America without costing Americans anything. They also plan to discourage how politics have controlled the situation with vaccines. Biden plans to put scientists in charge to prevent the COVID-19 vaccines from becoming a pawn in the game of political chess. 

Fifthly, Biden and Harris plan to focus on protecting older and other at-risk Americans. They plan to accomplish this by establishing and creating a COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force and a Nationwide American Dashboard to check-in at real-time on different communities to see if cases are decreasing or spreading.

Sixthly, Biden and Harris plan to “rebuild and expand the defenses that Trump has dismantled to predict, prevent and mitigate pandemic threats, including those coming from China.” This includes immediately restoring the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense along with the World Health Organization. Additionally, relaunching and strengthening the U.S. Agency for International Development’s pathogen-tracking program, also known as PREDICT, and expanding and restoring the number of CDC’s deployed disease detectives, including rebuilding the office in Beijing, China.

Finally, Biden and Harris plan to “implement mask mandates nationwide by working with governors and mayors and by asking the American people to do what they do best: step up in a time of crisis.” Biden plans to call on Americans to wear a mask when around anyone outside of your households, Governors to create a state-wide mandate to wear a mask and local authorities to ensure the state mask mandate is followed.

Once Biden and Harris take office, their administration has promised, regardless of the state of the pandemic at that time, they will “listen to science, ensure public health decisions are informed by public health professionals and restore trust, transparency, common purpose and accountability to our government.” Once Biden and Harris are sworn in on Jan. 20, America will see if they follow through with their promise.