The Food and Drug Administration is reversing course on its requirement for all staffers to report to the office.

There’s the initial shock and chaos in a collective disaster like the deadly and destructive California wildfires.

The White House COVID-19 Response team is warning a majority of new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. are from five states and about 20% are coming from Florida alone.

FILE - This Nov. 15, 1995 file photo shows then Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Administrator David Kessler testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. President-elect Joe Biden has picked Kessler to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration's first 100 days and stem the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Denis Paquin)WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden has picked a former Food and Drug commissioner to lead vaccine science in his drive to put 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his administration's first 100 days and stem the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. David Kessler, who will have the title of chief science officer of COVID response, headed the Food and Drug Administration in the 1990s under presidents of both political parties. Kessler will coordinate vaccine review and approval, as well as the logistics of manufacturing millions more doses.

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)Mexico posted a record spike in coronavirus cases on Friday, with 21,366 newly confirmed infections, about double the daily rate of increase just a week ago. The National Health Commission said 90 of those confirmed cases were in Hebei province, adjacent to Beijing, where the country’s biggest recent outbreak occurred. State health officials announced this week that vaccine eligibility would be expanded to educators and seniors beginning Jan. 23. But federal officials have since said the stockpile was exhausted when those promises were made and governors can’t expect any windfall shipments. President Donald Trump had invoked the Defense Production Act to address various aspects of the COVID-19 public health crisis.

– President-elect Joe Biden pledged Friday to boost supplies of coronavirus vaccine and set up new vaccination sites to meet his goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. “You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation,” Biden declared. Another carryover from the Trump administration plan: Biden said he intends to mobilize local pharmacies to administer vaccines. Two medical groups, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Group, said Friday evening they “strongly support” the Biden plan. The Biden administration also plans to launch a public education campaign to overcome doubts about vaccination.

Biden's team released some broad details for the Jan. 20 event on Tuesday. They're proceeding with the plans without any assurances that outgoing President Donald Trump will participate. Biden's team is urging supporters not to come to Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration. “The ceremony’s footprint will be extremely limited, and the parade that follows will be reimagined,” Biden's inaugural committee said in a statement. The outgoing president still refuses to concede the election.

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the members of a team of public health and science experts to develop a blueprint for fighting the coronavirus. U.S. surgeon general from 2014-17, who commanded public health force that dealt with Ebola, Zika and Flint water crisis. Associate professor of internal medicine, public health and management at Yale University and associate dean for health equity research at Yale’s medical school specializing in health care for marginalized populations. Executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who helped lead Chicago’s Department of Public Health for nearly 20 years. Professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.

In this image provided by Public Health Emergency, a department of Health and Human Services, Rick Bright is shown in his official photo on April 27, 2017, in Washington. Bright has been named by President-elect Joe Biden as a member of his COVID-19 advisory board. (Health and Human Services via AP)WASHINGTON – The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):7:25 a.m.President-elect Joe Biden has announced the members of his coronavirus task force, which will put together a blueprint for fighting the pandemic. The co-chairs are former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Food Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale University professor and researcher. Notable among the task force members is Rick Bright, a vaccine expert and former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

“We are still facing a dark winter.”He called on Americans to separate politics from the virus and embrace mask-wearing. Biden noted the pandemic’s disproportionate toll on people of color as he called on Americans to separate politics from the virus and embrace mask-wearing. Pfizer said Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine may be a remarkable 90% effective, based on early and incomplete test results. A top Trump administration health official delivered much the same message as Biden, although the timing was coincidental and the occasion apolitical. The advisory board that Biden announced on Monday includes doctors and scientists who have served in previous administrations, many of them experts in public health, vaccines and infectious disease.

The White House in Washington, is seen early Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, the morning after incumbent President Donald Trump was defeated by his Democratic challenger, President-elect Joe Biden. That’s a necessary move to free up money for the transition and clear the way for Biden’s team to begin putting in place the transition process at agencies. Saying the field was full of good candidates, Clyburn said he “came to the conclusion that Joe Biden was our best bet.”___9 a.m.President-elect Joe Biden will launch an “agency review teams” this coming week. Biden’s campaign launched a transition team in May, and they’ve been working alongside designated staffers in President Donald Trump’s administration on transition planning for months. Biden’s transition team has also come out with a transition-focused website — BuildBackBetter.com — and is launching transition-focused social media accounts under the username “Transition46.”

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)WASHINGTON – The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):8:35 p.m.Joe Biden is getting a boost from Oprah Winfrey in the final days of the presidential campaign. While President Donald Trump won all but Minnesota in 2016, Democrats are increasingly optimistic Biden can win at least Michigan and Pennsylvania back, and he’s making a play for Ohio as well. ___HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:The presidential campaign shifts west as President Donald Trump visits an Arizona town across the Colorado River from Nevada. The Biden campaign announced the rally on Wednesday but hasn’t said where it will be held. President Donald Trump won Michigan by just under 11,000 votes four years ago, making it his closest margin of victory in any state.

WASHINGTON – The Latest on the 2020 presidential election (all times local):12:40 p.m.Joe Biden is receiving a virtual briefing from a former U.S. surgeon general and a collection of health experts on how best to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Biden’s campaign created a virtual studio that connected the former vice president via video with former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and six other experts at a theater in downtown Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday. Biden will give a speech on the topic later in the day. He suggested doing so could save thousands of lives and ultimately be more effective between now and early next year as vaccines are being developed. Others on the briefing endorsed a national requirement to wear masks, given the country’s “porous borders” and rules that vary from state to state.