- The pandemic has been raging out of control this past year, with daily deaths in early January as high as 4,000+ and totaling 441,000 deaths to date, expecting to be over 500,000 by March 2021.
- Right-wing domestic terrorism has been steadily on the rise culminating with the Jan 6 attack on Congress, and chatter with more to come.
- The economy has only recovered 42% of the 22 million jobs lost during 2020.
- Schools and many businesses remain closed due to the pandemic.
- Russia pulled off the largest and most sophisticated cyber attack of U.S. government agencies in history.
It’s a big agenda. In his early days on the job, Biden has signed a flurry of Executive Orders beginning to address some of the aforementioned agendas. Regarding the pandemic, he mandated masks on all federal lands and issued a 100-day mask challenge. He rescinded Trump’s withdrawal from eh World Health Organization. And according to AMA President Biden :Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face’
created the position of COVID-19 response coordinator to make sure all elements of the government’s response—including production, supply and distribution of personal protective equipment, vaccines and tests—are working swiftly.”The new administration has had to navigate the news that (A) there was no previous coordinated national distribution plan for the vaccines, and (B) that the 2nd dose stockpile — that former President Trump alluded to — in fact didn’t exist.As the pandemic got worse in December and January, there is still the issue of schools. Former President Trump urged for school reopenings last summer. Parents, teachers, and doctors all had different views, which created a lot of stress. In January 2021, local and state officials have been developing their own guidelines, for example, the state of Minnesota.