The Biden administration will hold regular health briefings on the coronavirus beginning this week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced at the White House Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden administration will begin holding regular briefings on COVID-19, starting Wednesday
  • The briefings will be "science-led," the White House press secretary said, and they will feature public health officials
  • Already, Biden's top medical adviser, Dr. Fauci, has been at the forefront of pandemic-related briefings
  • Biden's plan for combatting COVID-19 is ambitious, including priorities of widespread vaccination and reopening schools

The briefings, which will happen virtually, will begin Wednesday and happen about three times per week, Psaki said, and they’ll be led by top health officials.

"These will be science-led briefings featuring our public health officials and members of our COVID-19 response team," Psaki said.

"They’re a reflection of our commitment to being transparent and honest with the public about the pandemic and the work our whole-of-government team is doing every day." she added.

The briefings will likely feature President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s already been at the forefront of the administration’s COVID-related briefings in Biden’s first week.

“The idea that you can get up here and you can talk about what you know, what evidence, what the science is, and ... let the science speak. It is somewhat of a liberating feeling,” Fauci said at a White House briefing on Thursday.

As he signed a slew of pandemic-related executive actions last week, President Biden was joined by other top health officials, including his nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and nominee for Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

Biden has released a 198-page plan outlining his strategy for responding to the pandemic, along with a new COVID-19 Response Team.

The plan’s priorities include vaccinating 100 million Americans in Biden’s first 100 days, reopening schools, expanding testing, boosting production of personal protective equipment and vaccines and addressing racial disparities in COVID-19’s impact.

Last week, the president warned Americans that the pandemic would get worse before it gets better, predicting another 100,000 deaths by the end of February. He partly blamed the lack of coordination under President Trump.

“The past year, we couldn't rely on the federal government to act with the urgency and focus and coordination we needed, and we have seen the tragic cost of that failure,” Biden said. “We didn't get into this mess overnight and it's going to take months for us to turn things clear.”

Biden and others have promised transparency as they work to form their own response to the pandemic, which includes the forthcoming, triweekly COVID-19 briefings.

"One of the new things in this administration is if you don't know the answer, don't guess," Dr. Fauci said last week at the White House, laughing. "Just say you don't know the answer."