Biden Turns To Coronavirus as Trump Fights To Overturn Election

U.S. President-elect 👤Joe Biden will meet with healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis in a virtual event on Wednesday, as outgoing President 👤Donald Trump expands his campaign to overturn the election results.

Trump has refused to concede the Nov. 3 election, blocking the smooth transition to a new administration. Biden has pledged to make the pandemic, which has killed more than 247,000 people in the United States and cost millions their jobs, a top priority when he takes office on Jan. 20.

Biden and his senior advisers have said that Trump’s defiance could jeopardize efforts to contain surging COVID-19 cases and inhibit vaccine distribution planning.

That sentiment was echoed by three leading U.S. healthcare organizations on Tuesday that addressed the president directly in an open letter, urging him to share critical COVID-19 data with the Biden team.

“As providers of care for all Americans, we see the suffering that is occurring in our communities due to COVID-19….It is from this front line human perspective that we urge you to share critical data and information as soon as possible,” said the letter, signed by the heads of the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and the American Hospitals Association.

While Biden participates in the virtual roundtable from his home state of Delaware on Wednesday, Trump again has no public events scheduled.

Trump has claimed, without providing evidence, that he was was cheated out of a victory by widespread fraud and he has fired off a flurry of lawsuits that judges have mostly rejected.

Biden won the national popular vote by more than 5.6 million votes, or 3.6 percentage points, with some ballots still being counted. In the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner, Biden captured 306 votes to the Republican Trump’s 232.