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Medical College Of Wisconsin CEO Hopes Biden Will Be More Transparent About COVID-19

Screenshot
Dr. John Raymond's opening slide from his presentation to the Milwaukee Rotary Club on January 19. Raymond is speaking in the upper right corner.

A prominent Milwaukee doctor weighed in this week, somewhat reluctantly, on how the battle against COVID-19 will go with President Joe Biden.

Dr. John Raymond is president and CEO of the Medical College of Wisconsin. He was asked during a virtual meeting of the Milwaukee Rotary Club on Jan. 19 about the Biden administration replacing the Trump administration. 

"Well, it's difficult to do without traversing into political areas,” replied Raymond.

But, he added that we're likely to see more national coordination against the coronavirus under Biden, compared to former President Donald Trump relying more on the states.

“I personally don't think that was the best strategy. A national strategy makes more sense, especially when you're trying to ramp up (vaccine) production. The Biden administration has said they're more likely to invoke the wartime production act to try to ramp up our production capacity, which I think is a nice pairing with the good parts of Operation Warp Speed, which was a Trump administration initiative, to really accelerate the research and development of the vaccine,” said Raymond.

Raymond said he also expects Biden to offer more transparency and less rhetoric.

"And so, I'm very much looking forward to not having mixed messages, and to be able to hold the administration accountable for what they say,” said Raymond.

Raymond said to be fair to the Trump administration, we're now in the second month of having game-changing vaccines available for COVID-19 and the job ahead is more clear.

Trump, in his farewell speech as president Wednesday morning, called the relatively fast vaccine development “a medical miracle.”

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