President Biden’s efforts to deliver on key campaign promises to tackle the coronavirus pandemic are expected to dominate this week’s Sunday talk shows.
On Tuesday, U.S. coronavirus deaths surpassed the grim milestone of 400,000 deaths, with a total of more than 415,000 as of Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Across the country, nearly 25 million people have been infected with COVID-19.
While Biden has promised to administer 100 million coronavirus vaccines in his first 100 days in office, some say this may not be enough to tame the pandemic, especially with a more contagious variant of the virus first found in the U.K. now spreading in the U.S.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency coronavirus relief package is also set to be debated by Congress over the coming weeks, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday saying that House Democrats would move immediately on the package and that it could hit the House floor as early as the week of Feb. 1.
The proposed package includes hundreds of billions of dollars to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, increase unemployment benefits, provide $1,400 in direct payments to qualified Americans and offer aid to state and local governments.
Biden, while unveiling his comprehensive strategy to address the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, warned that it will take months for the country to make significant progress in combating the pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, told reporters Thursday that the new administration is “amplifying” what former President Trump’s administration did through a more active federal role, but “we certainly are not starting from scratch.”
Fauci, who this week said it was “liberating” to work under the Biden administration after his time serving under Trump, is set to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” this Sunday.
Deborah Birx, former coordinator of the Trump White House’s coronavirus task force, will also appear on the CBS Sunday show.
Several of Biden’s picks to serve on his health team are also lined up for appearances on Sunday, including Health and Human Services nominee Xavier Becerra on CNN’s “State of the Union,” as well as Dr. Vivek Murthy, Biden’s nominee to be surgeon general, on ABC’s “This Week.”
Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); Murthy.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — White House chief of staff Ron Klain; Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Fauci; Birx.
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Becerra; Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.)
“Fox News Sunday” — Romney; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), CDC Director Rochelle Walensky
Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures”— Chad Wolf, Former DHS Acting Secretary; Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Intel. Committee; Glenn Greenwald, journalist and The Intercept co-founder; John Solomon, Just The News, Editor in Chief.
“America This Week” with Eric Bolling— Austan Goolsbee, economist; Dave Rubin, political commentator; Steve Cortes, former senior Trump campaign adviser; Marc Fisher, senior editor at The Washington Post; Caleb Ecarma, D.C. reporter at Vanity Fair; Katelyn Caralle, Daily Mail.
Updated 4:23 p.m.