Coronavirus

President-elect Holds Roundtable With Health Care Workers

President-elect Joe Biden promised he'd prioritize state and local funding for COVID-19.

President-elect Holds Roundtable With Health Care Workers
Andrew Harnik / AP
SMS

Friday marks two months until Inauguration Day.

We're looking at the path forward, as President-elect Biden prepares to take office.

A piece of that preparation is learning more about the fight against COVID-19.

Biden held a roundtable meeting with emergency workers where the president of the Minnesota Nurses Association described how dire the situation is getting becoming in hospitals.

"President-elect Biden, there is something seriously wrong when nurses have to take to the streets to beg for protection in the middle of a pandemic," said Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association. "What we're experiencing in Minnesota is what nurses are experiencing all over the country."

Biden answered with criticism toward the Trump administration. He said the delay in transition is hurting his response to the pandemic.

"We've been unable to get access to the kinds of things we need to know about the depth of the stockpiles. We know there's not much at all," Biden said. "We get to the point where we have a sense of when these vaccines comes out, how they'll be distributed, who'll be first in line, what the plan is."

Biden also promised to make funding for state and local governments a priority when he takes office in January.

States are facing financial shortfalls because of the pandemic.