When President-elect Joe Biden takes the helm of a deeply divided country on Jan. 20, he’ll do so at a time of cascading national crises. The possibility of further extremist violence looms in the wake of the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol — an insurrection carried out by a violent mob and fanned by President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his election loss. Approximately 400,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19. Amid concern about the emergence of a more transmissible strain of the coronavirus, Biden’s pick to lead the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said she expects the death toll to reach half a million by mid-February.