“This was an idea that really came up last year during the Trump administration – public health agencies recommended it, President Trump vetoed it for some reason,” Klain told Lester Holt of NBC. “We want to put this back on track. I hope that in the next few days, or next week, we can announce some progress on that.”
The Biden government’s alleged receptivity to the proposal comes after the director of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, seemed to cast doubt on whether sending masks to Americans would necessarily convince those who did not use them yet to do so. . When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week whether it made sense for the federal government to send masks to American families, she replied that “it’s not entirely clear to me that the reason people don’t wear masks is because they don’t have access to them. “
“Certainly, I would strongly advocate for those in areas where they have few resources and cannot afford masks or do not have access to masks, we need to make sure that people have protection,” continued Walensky. ‘But it is not entirely clear in my mind that the challenge of wearing a mask has been one of access. ”
On Thursday, Klain again defended the government’s goal of vaccinating 100 million people against Covid-19 in its first 100 days, telling Holt that “we are trying to increase vaccine production and distribution – we will have more to say about the vaccines. targets that come after. ”
Klain rejected Holt’s argument that the Trump administration managed to achieve 1 million doses of vaccine administered per day, saying that “the Trump administration reached one million doses per day in 40.”
“A question has been raised about whether or not these checks should go to people who earn $ 200,000, $ 300,000,” said Klain. “I think if Congress has ideas on how to focus on this to ensure that workers, the middle class, in this country receive these checks, we are fine with that idea.”
“What we are not going to do is leave out a large part of the middle class and we certainly are not going to give in and reduce the amount of these checks,” he added.
About 78% of households would qualify for relief payments under the Republican proposal, while 95% would be eligible under Biden’s proposal, according to analysts at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, who warned that the figures are preliminary, since none Formal legislative text is still available.
CNN’s Katie Lobosco and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.