Vice President Mike Pence left a report for President-Elect Joe Biden on the past administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force. It was not immediately clear what the report contained, but Pence had been the head of the task force throughout the administration’s response to the ongoing pandemic.
Pence led a team that included Dr. Deborah Birx, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, CDC Director Robert Redfield, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Kenneth Cuccinelli, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Seema Verma.
Azar has already resigned, and Redfield s tenure will end as Biden is sworn-in. Adams penned his resignation note earlier Wednesday. Birx previously stated plans to retire following backlash from Thanksgiving travel to a family house in Delaware. Biden has already announced members of his own Task Force team, which includes former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek M
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Less than a day before the Trump administration left office, China’s Foreign Ministry offered a parting gift: slapping sanctions on 10 sitting or former Trump administration officials. A statement from the ministry said it was instituting sanctions on 28 people for “a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations.”
The list included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House trade and industrial policy advisor Peter Navarro, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth Keith Krach, and U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft, as well as former National Security Advisor John Bolton, former Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, and former White House chi
Twenty-eight people have been sanctioned by the Chinese government for their alleged involvement in violating “China s sovereignty.”
The list of officials included Pompeo, Assistant to the President Peter Navarro, Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon.
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“These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They and companies and institutions associated with them are also restricted from doing business with China,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Chinese government cited “selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China” when announcing their decision to issue sanctions against the U.S. officials.
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The U.S. on Monday stood on the brink of 400,000 reported coronavirus deaths, almost double the total of the next most severely hit nation and still mourning more than 20,000 deaths per week. The U.S. has added almost 4 million new infections this month, and the emergence of new variants only figures to add to that total.
By Jim Carlton Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday asked Pfizer Inc. if it would sell its Covid-19 vaccine directly to New York state, to help alleviate a shortfall of federally allocated doses that. | January 19, 2021