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The administration of US President Joe Biden has planned to send at least 25 million masks to community health centers, food banks, and soup kitchens in an effort to target low-income Americans. It’s a scaled-down version of an earlier proposal to send masks to every American. The White House says the masks will be made in America and describes them as high quality, washable, and consistent with the mask guidance from the CDC. Around 12 to 15 million Americans in disadvantaged areas are expected to receive a mask. It is noteworthy that the masks will go to more than 1,300 community health centers and 60,000 food pantries and soup kitchens. Biden has urged all Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency. However, experts believe the masks will be needed for much longer than that to help defeat the pandemic.

Point to be noted that the US has crossed 500,000 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House announced the initiative and said, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends mask-wearing as a critical step to help slow the spread and protect people from getting COVID-19, but many low-income Americans still lack access to this basic protection”. President Biden is trying to target ethnic minorities and financially disadvantaged communities that have often been hardest hit by the pandemic. Biden has also set a goal of 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days. However, the US was roughly already reaching that pace by the time he arrived in office. The administration of Biden has set out to purchase more vaccine shots than his predecessor did.

The White House also said the US will have enough vaccine supply for all American adults by the end of July, though it will take longer than that to administer all the shots. On Wednesday, the US State Department has announced the creation of a new diversity officer position along with a council of deputy assistant secretaries from each of its bureaus linked to the issue. On Wednesday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “I am committed to bringing the diversity and inclusion work already underway at the State Department to the next level. To make that happen, I am pleased to announce the creation of a new Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer position at State”. The new officer will ‘hold senior leadership accountable for implementing new diversity and inclusion programs and report directly to Blinken. He added, “Our diversity gives us a significant competitive advantage on the world stage”.