President Joe Biden signed a slew of executive actions this week aimed at vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of his administration. Among the initiatives the president announced is a planned expansion of pharmacy partnerships, mobilizing the National Guard, and finding more healthcare workers to help distribute vaccines. But, Biden is still warning that the darkest days of the pandemic are yet to come, predicting the virus death toll will probably top 500,000 next month.
To ramp up supplies, the president is giving government agencies a green light to use the Defense Production Act to direct manufacturing to help increase the supply of masks, PPE, testing kits, and the necessary materials for vaccines.
"It gives the federal government more focus and more opportunity to coordinate a response from the federal level, which is always helpful," said Tom Price, former secretary of Health and Human Services under President Trump and a former representative from Georgia.
The president also ordered new requirements for mask-wearing, mandating them on planes, trains, and buses when traveling between states. Masks must also be worn inside all federal facilities.
"At the end of the day this is public health, which means you've got to increase the administration of the vaccine, you've got to increase the testing, you've got to make sure you're decreasing the spread of the transmission," said Price. "That means wearing a mask, physical distancing, making certain that you're washing your hands, and not participating in activities if you're feeling ill at all."
President Biden's "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness"
is a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump's coronavirus actions. His administration never released a formal pandemic plan and left many actions solely up to the states. Still, Price said he thinks focusing the federal government's efforts on helping the states is an important aspect of tackling the pandemic.
"Remember the states have the infrastructure that is necessary in order to be able to administer the vaccine and to provide the tests, the public health, the infrastructure. All of this is at the state level. So, any help that can be given to the states is vital," said the former HHS secretary.
Honing in on one state, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that New York has already used 93 percent of its coronavirus vaccine supply, putting some pressure on Biden in the early days of his administration.
"The state of New York actually asked the new administration … for the opportunity to themselves go out and purchase vaccine on their own and the federal government said no, the Biden administration said no, 'we don't want you to do that.' Now, that's all well and good so long as the federal government is making certain that the amount of vaccine being produced is the amount that's needed out there," said Price.
"We may be seeing the first little disagreement about how we get the greatest number of vaccines to the individuals that need it most acutely."
To make sure that governments can get the job done when it comes to vaccinations, he added that "communication is absolutely the key" for states, like New York, to get across their needs and, "The federal government needs to take that information in real-time and say 'this is what we're doing to address it.'" Price emphasized that it's the job of the government to get what is needed to those on the ground at the local level.
"There is a whole lot of vaccine out there that hasn't been given, as they say, in arms," he said. "We're giving about 900,000 vaccines a day right now so the goal of the Biden administration, of having 100 million doses provided in the first 100 days, is certainly achievable, and I would suggest that it may be a little low."
Price made a comparison to the flu, saying that when the flu shot is given out in the fall, the U.S. provides about three million vaccines a day during the height of the season.
However, Price did note that he believes the U.S. can accomplish Biden's goals and stop the spread of COVID-19.
"It is achievable because it's a public health challenge, and we've met public health challenges before."
Inflation remains hot as the January PPI has increased by 1 percent, twice what analysts had been expecting with a jump of 9.7 over the year. Beth Ann Bovino, the U.S. chief economist, for S&P Global Ratings, joined Cheddar News to discuss the rapid pace of inflation alongside higher wages, predicting the Federal Reserve will act quickly and forcefully this year. "They haven't changed their forecast, yet, that's gonna come out soon. But we expect that a March rate hike is basically pretty much baked in the cake," she said. "We think six rate hikes in total for 2022."
For black history month, Cheddar is highlighting black business leaders who are driving the need for representation forward. On February 10, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted an event called 'Developing the Black-Owned Business Ecosystem.' The virtual event was organized under the lobbying group's two initiatives -- the Equality of Opportunity Initiative, and the Coalition to Back Black Businesses. The event highlighted the developments needed to develop more black-owned businesses in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Wilbon, Dean of the School of Business at Howard University, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss his experience as a speaker at the event.
A newly declassified letter by senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich claimed the CIA. has been conducting a Secret Surveillance Program which has been collecting a bulk of data from American citizens. The letter which was written in April of 2021 urges the CIA to come clean about the kind of data it collects and how many Americans have been impacted. According to these two senators, the program did not have the safeguards of congressional oversight.
Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says investors are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the situation between Russia and the Ukraine and elaborates on the impact higher oil prices stemming from the conflict would have on the market.
Last week, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a a letter airing concerns that the CIA is collecting the data of American citizens without their consent. The lawmakers fear that the program might be exploiting private data. Morgan Wright, the chief security advisor at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, joined Cheddar News to discuss the ramifications of the letter. "We don't have all the dots in one place to connect them," said Wright, cautioning against jumping to conclusions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that diplomacy is still possible, while U.S. officials warn that an attack on Ukraine is imminent. Cheddar News speaks with James Astill, Washington bureau chief of The Economist on the latest developments in Eastern Europe.
As the number of Russian troops rose to 130,000 along its Ukrainian border, hopes for a diplomatic solution remain among world leaders. Jason McMann, head of geopolitical risk analysis at Morning Consult, joined Cheddar News to break down the fluid situation. "We saw signs pointing towards an increase in tensions between Ukraine and Russia, whereas today we're seeing some signs that the Russian government may be willing to continue down a path of diplomatic negotiations to try and find some sort of non-military solution," he said.
Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are now planning to amend the stop trading on congressional knowledge act, otherwise known as the 'Stock' Act. This 2012 law governs how members disclose the purchase or sale of stocks and amending it would close a loophole, eliminating the trading of individual stocks by members of congress. Pelosi has consistently opposed a ban on stock trading by lawmakers and congressional staff...so what's changed? Kedric Payne, Vice President of Campaign Legal Center, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for a controversial new version of the Alabama congressional map to remain in place. The lower court had previously ordered that the state must redraw that congressional map because it violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters. Redistricting expert Yurij Rudensky joins Cheddar News to weigh in.
