WILMINGTON (US) – President-elect Joe Biden said on Thursday he would get a COVID-19 shot in order to convince the people that it is safe and vowed to retain the nation’s top adviser on the pandemic, Anthony Fauci, after assuming office next month.
“People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work,” he said in a CNN interview which was aired on Thursday.
Fauci is the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force. He held a meeting with the advisers of Biden on the pandemic earlier during the day. In the CNN interview, Biden said he had asked Fauci to remain as a chief medical adviser.
During the interview, he also urged the Congress to pass the $908 billion bill proposed by moderates in the Senate, adding that it should be viewed as a “start” to providing relief during the pandemic.
“People are really hurting,” he said. “They’re scared to death.”
He said that after assuming office, he will order face masks to be worn in federal buildings and transportation hubs and would also urge Americans to wear them for the first hundred days of his administration.