The 9 biggest challenges Biden will face on Covid-19, from today on President-elect Joe Biden JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images WASHINGTON — No president wants a federal emergency. No one in that role is waiting to call in FEMA reservists or deploy the National Guard. But on Wednesday, after Joe Biden raises his right hand and swears his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution, that’s exactly the plan. Their mission: to set up a slew of new vaccination clinics. The 20,000-strong FEMA workforce normally responds to the types of events that dominate 24-hour news cycles and leave towns and cities flattened to the ground, like the hurricanes and wildfires that have ravaged New Orleans and New York or California. FEMA can only deploy, in fact, when state and local governments decide they are incapable of responding on their own to whatever act of God is battering their community.