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President-elect Joe Biden urged Congress to immediately pass an economic relief package Monday as he warned that the coronavirus pandemic will worsen in the coming months. The incoming Democratic president also criticized President Trump for his refusal to concede his election loss and begin handing over power. Biden called Trump’s unprecedented actions “embarrassing for the country” and irresponsible. (Gearan and Stein, 11/6)

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday urged Congress to pass a coronavirus relief package, touting legislation House Democrats passed earlier this year that is opposed by Republicans. "Right now, Congress should come together and pass a COVID relief package like the HEROES Act that the House passed six months ago," Biden said during remarks in Wilmington, Del. "Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic relief to workers and businesses, then we can start to build back better than before." (Jagoda, 11/16)

President-elect Joe Biden says that public health experts tell him they recommend limiting Thanksgiving family gatherings to 10 people or fewer as the coronavirus pandemic surges again across the country. (Steinhauser, 11/16)

In their four years in office, the Trump administration made sweeping changes that affected the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, abortion and transgender rights, in many cases reversing the efforts of the Obama administration. Most of the measures were done through executive orders and regulation since it was tough to get any bills through Congress, particularly after the Democrats took control of the House after the 2018 midterm elections. Biden's health officials will likely be active, as well, but it will take time for all their actions to take effect. (Luhby, Kelly and Cole, 11/16)

President-elect Joe Biden’s health team is shaping up as a competition largely between Obama administration alumni who stayed in Washington and those who joined state health agencies. Biden, who made fighting the coronavirus and expanding health care top campaign priorities, faces a steep climb for central parts of his agenda, including expanding the Affordable Care Act’s insurance subsidies and creating government-run insurance. Democrats’ majority has been narrowed in the House and control of the Senate remains undecided. (Ruoff and Stein, 11/16)

When President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office in January, he will inherit a pandemic that has convulsed the country. His transition team last week announced a 13-member team of scientists and doctors who will advise on control of the coronavirus. One of them is Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center and assistant professor at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. (Mandavilli, 11/16)

Smartphone-based COVID-19 tracking apps are likely to play a role in a new national plan by President-elect Joe Biden to contain the coronavirus as daily case counts, hospitalizations and deaths from the disease skyrocket across the country. Fewer than half the 50 states have launched a smartphone-based exposure notification app, and a few states have them in development. (Ratnam, 11/16)

The coronavirus isn’t the only epidemic President-elect Joe Biden will be facing. The nation’s opioid crisis is far from solved — and may be worsening amid widespread job loss and Americans’ increased isolation. Biden has proposed spending $125 billion on prevention, treatment and recovery services, vowing to make medication-assisted treatment such as buprenorphine and methadone available to everyone who needs it by 2025. He also wants to restructure the criminal justice system to ensure no one goes to jail for drug use alone and has promised to go after pharmaceutical companies that contributed to overprescribing of opioids. (Ellerbeck, 11/16)