President-Elect Joe Biden says his first move in office will be to issue a national mask mandate. He says he plans to work with governors, however, if governors choose to deny him, he’ll appeal to more localized governments.

Today, Biden intends to announce his coronavirus task force. Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general, and David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration will head the force. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, who helped the Obama administration craft the Affordable Care Act, will also serve on the force. Dr. Emanuel claims that the pandemic may run into November of 2021.

“But it’ll probably be enough to begin opening colleges and universities [and] schools, again depending on how we distribute this thing and how effective we can be on that,” he added.

This morning, DOW futures were up by nearly 1700 points after pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claimed their new COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective. The vaccine, which included BioNTech’s efforts, was tested on 94 patients.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19,” said Pfizer CEO and Chairman Dr. Albert Bourla, in a statement. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis.”

President Trump responded positively on social media regarding the new developments.

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