welcome to "power lunch. i'm morgan brennan dom chu will join me for the hour here's the 2:00 takeout. the nasdaq hitting a record high, on track for its best week since november as the faang stocks fight back. the housing market showing no signs of slowing down. a top analyst tells us the names that have more room to run the economy is not hot president biden inherited a laundry list of challenges first, let's start with the market, with record highs near

the flat line it did hit a record high earlier this well, and the nasdaq composite up about 0.5%, that big technology trade coming into focus here again. check out what's going on with shares of alphabet, the parent company of google it's relatively flat on the session here, but earlier today it did hit a record high over the last week alone, it's up 9%. there's a renewed focus on the megacap technology stocks. over the last three months, that's a trade trend to watch. let's watch what's happening with a couple big names in technology ibm and intel, both of these names are up solidly

intel up 2%. morgan, big technology, a big focus for a lot of investors, that's over to you. >> we are expecting to hear from president biden any moment with more details on his response plan after the reports that the trump administration led no blueprint for the vaccine roll jowl. >> the sheer volume of things that the biden administration in its covid responsible for the to ensuring equity is mind-boggling. yesterday they had three announcements, including a new

covid response coordinator reporting to the resident. this is the seven-goal national strategy, which starts with restoring trust, but also the vaccine campaign, plans to mitigate the spread using the defendants production act. and all of these come, morgan, as we are one year to the day from the first kay of covid being confirmed in the united states i've been talking with ten experts across industry and government, public health science and medicine about what we learned in the last year as we accumulated 24 million cases and more than 400,000 deaths the biggest was what we know from the virus and how it spreads, the fact that so much is asymptomatic with the transmission, but also the harm the politicization of public health

they said this proves it possibility. >> what a full year it's been. we didn't even get to the treatment piece of it, either, with the eli lilly antibody news from this morning, either. we saw elements or -- under both the trump administration, but not necessarily in a big, widespread way is that the anticipation that president biden will do a much more blanket approach? and if so, what is the response from some of the companies that might be affected by that? it's something we knew the trump administration was doing, but not every time we talked to them

about it dr. scott gottlieb said they had been using this to ensure that people could get first in line pfizer had said they -- if the defense production act were used more to help them with the supply the biden administration is things like ensure the needles and syringes that can get every last drop out of the vials, to makes sure you get that bonus dose then we'll get the corporate reaction >> the market at record highs. as stock prices rise, so too do valuations for more let's bring in mike le bela, and michael aroni, at state street global investors.

m and m here mike and michael here. good afternoon to you both mike labellea, i will start with you. what do you make of the valuations here, given that we're getting starting to get earnings is that a case to be had for value indications not seeming as stretched as they currently are? >> valuations are at record levels, depending on how you look at it they can be as high as the late 1920s, or even approaches levels in the dot-com bubbles. there are you have to understand what the -- on a forward basis, but you also have to look at the path of the interest rates and considering how low rates are, and how they're expected to stay low. when you look at valuations on an interest rate adjusted basis, they don't look as stretched as

the headline numbers are the valuation -- now, the two big caveats for that is, if we start to see faster movement in rates, moving to the up side, or if we start to see more disappointment on the earnings perspective, that could be a lot more worrisome at the end of the year >> i think when the federal reserve has interest rates at zero, who cares about valuations i think that's reflected in the aftermath, we glommed on to roro, risk on/risk off. at the start of 2021, there's a new acronym.

it's gogo. growth on/growth off when they're skeptical, they go to the security blank either i think that's what's driving markets today. >> people are going back for the comfort trade, the fang names, we're seeing it over the last week are investors just saying, this is the devil i know i want to own facebook, alphabet, netflix, i would rather stay away from the value-oriented sectors, like oil, gas, financials where is the relative value there?

>> over the next couple weeks, we're likely to see scary headlines, report-high hospitalization rates, new potential implications of new strains. another potential trillion is entering the markets, rates will still be kept low. while we had a slow start for distribution, it will be a singular focus of the biden administration to improve that we're starting to see improvement already. 900,000 vaccinations a day so the profile for the value trade will continue to look more and more appealing, as we start to look past the headlines in the coming weeks to come

whether it's the proposed stimulus, how do you value that against maybe other companies that aren't necessarily as friendly to growth and equity mar markets. >> really they tried to suggest that the biden administration would focus on fiscal policy, and helping american families first, and the labor market i think that was trying to soothe so i do believe they will focus

on growth initiatives, fiscal spending first, getting the pandemic under control, and then pivot to perhaps some of the more scary market initiatives on taxes and regulations. >> we're going to leave the conversation there, gentlemen. thank you for joining us, mike and michael. coming up on the show, housing stocks surging higher as new data shows there's no signs of a slowdown in that industry we'll look at some names that could help build your portfolio. a third spac about to hit he market weave that and more. keep it right here sometimes, you want speedy but reliable. state-of-the-art but dependable. in other words, you want a hybrid. . so do telcos. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai

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welcome back can the builders meet the challenge and demand joining us is jack, from susquehanna, covering the housing stocks is this demand here to stay? >> thanks for having us. the demand we think is more

secular than episodic. if you look at where we have come the last ten years, we have underbuilt structure for a number of years. credit was tight and then it began to loosen. while millennial are hitting their stride in terms of home buying so you put those things together, we have excess demand,under supply, rates are low, this is more than just work from home scenario in 2020 where, you know, people are taking advantage of low rates. it's a much more broader development than what we have seen so far. we have a couple years of development. >> jack, we're also talking about, new homes run the gamut there's the lower end, higher end, where is the most robust demand coming from >> right now we really favor the entry level.

you think about dr horton, severalry communities from building higher-priced homes to serving that entry level buyer it's also where the supply on the existing side tends to be the lightest you have a lot of institutional buyers who acquire homes out of the financial crisis that would have prospects for entry buyers, but they're just not there anymore. the new home builders are uniquely positioned to serve that buyer. >> i'm curious about the input costs. we have seen quite a number of commodities, rising price lumber, for example, had a strong run last year how does that play into the mix in terms of margins for the home builders, and also in terms of what that means, how that translates to the inventory coming out on the market >> it's probably the biggest die bait in space right now.

you try to figure out how to deliver it later, you imagine the volume and sales activity, so you can stay ahead of your supply lines, if you will. the good news is home prices are up nicely over the past year, so a lot of the input costs that are rising have been offset. obviously the bigger the builder you are, the more negotiate are negotiating power you have with the trades and then interest rates, right incoming can't go -- home prices can't go up faster than incomes. rates are at a record lows, so that's been a nice release valve. so farp builders can offset generally in the right direction, but i think their concerns today, if we sell home in 2020 and deliver them on 2021 costs, that's something we have to be more careful about so you're seeing them make much more intense decisions on that

pace versus price balance. >> to wrap it up, top pick in the group, jack, what is it? >> i like century communities. a positive rating. they are uniquely positioned to welcome the first-time homebuyer. they're expanding their offering they also tend to go -- i think a lot of markets where other builders aren't. it's a smaller cap name, but we think their product set is very attractive >> jack, thanks for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. still ahead, the spac storm, the solar surge, but one of the underthe radar stocks that is soaring. we'll have that and much more after this quick break example. you've got car insurance here. and home insurance here. why not... schuuuuzp... put them together. save even more. some things are better together. like um... tea and crumpets. but you wouldn't bundle just anything.

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welcome back it's time for today's power rundown. first up, a spac storm a third spac etf launches, a fin tech company, this is speculation and the bubble fears do grow around the space so far they have raised $16 billion.

barry sternlek warning about the spac craze >> a lot of these companies won't be here, and many will need huge rounds of capital to build out technology, even if it's relevant. i don't think people buying these stocks today even know how it works it is a casino effect, a euphoria, and won't last the company -- some companies are really solid, but others aren't competitive upped well. it is fun time in the stock market >> i see that point. c cnbc's index is up nearly 30% since november >> talk about a double-edged sword. it wasn't long ago we were

bemoaning the traditional -- it didn't give a democratized process. lo and behold you have the spac phrase, that ima staff manager, i'm going to give them the money and let them make the decision, and now people are complaining it's give away too much control. spacs might be emblematic -- >> it's another way for companies to raise catch, go public a lot earlier than they would in a traditional ipo, for better or worse, to barry's points, some of these companies have very small revenue streams

right now. even their targets for, say, 2025 are very, very small, but it does give, to your point, more people, more options to invest in, for better or worse buyer beware solar stocks, in names like sun run, sun power, first solar, getting a boost at the biden administration focuses programs more on renewable sources of energy then today, morgan stanley making a bullish call on solar edge, calling the name a world leader in the solar pv converter market, and setting a target price. the sun shines on everybody in solar. >> just do it as a spac with these new companies. i do think it's some of the same trends with evs, for example,

it's the whole idea of clean energy tech. the biden administration is now at the helm. i sawed a report today that the department of energy has loan authorizations going back to 20 other, expected to have this deployed and you have a president that has pledged to have a clean energy economy be 2050 also, china huge lead, so we're playing a game of catch-up here. >> some of the biggest players in solar technology are actually established traditional utility companies, even oil and gas -- >> who would have thought utilities were so sexy, so sunny. [ laughter ] investors are pouring into chinese markets. according to the china securities depository, clearing 1.62 million new investors the mainland stock market last year, and the etf, the fxi, is up

around 14% just over the past month. what do you make of it >> i'm not sure how much of this is a -- this rally has been hatching since lie christmas eve. people were just saying the incoming biden administration is going to start being a little better in terms of trade negotiations and trade matters with china or how much of it is after jack ma resurfaces, and maybe we should invest in that market again the first thing for sure, money is flowing in. >> i think there's a lot of question marks there still we're starting to get pieces put together with some of the cabinet nomination hearings. but i think, to your point -- we just had that comment, casino

mentality, the other piece of this puzzle is you have a lot of mom-and-pop investors that's been popular in the past, also put their money into the markets there, and i think there's been a real push by the government to see that happen, to basically finance innovation through the public markets rather than, say, continue to push investment in real estate. >> a good segment would be to bring in a panel to ask which market is overheated >> producers, take note. >> exactly coming up on "power lunch," president biden inherited the largest and fastest growing wealth gap how does he plan to deal with that big divide. another issue facing the new administration, why bitcoin investors may be fleeing that space. that trade is playing out toy.da bitcoin is down big. we'll explain why when "power

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americans are more optimistic about the pandemic

than they were last fall, with a poll showing 44% believe the worst is still to come, but that is down from 55% in a survey taken before the election. more than hoff of those polls say vaccine distribution is not going well here is an example of that new york city is postponing all appointments scheduled for today through sunday at more than 125 vaccination sites, and isn't making any new appointments either, because it doesn't have any doses to give. >> in terms of the -- we want everything to full boar, but we are struggling without vaccine, and we're obviously in a contradiction, you want to open something, but there's no vaccine to do where it, it sends a false hope to people we need more security in the supply to go into high gear. >> with hand sanitizer use up sharply during the pandemic, pediatrics eye injuries associated with their use are also increases a french study finds they

increased sevenfold in 2020, compared to the previous year. you are up to date i will send it back to you guys, dom. >> markets with the dow and s&p just about flat on the session so far you can see the s&p higher about 0.2% the dow industrials roughly up 37 points, the russell 2000 a massive performer the past few months is slipping by about 1% probably a holding pattern here, because we are awaiting inventory data, the holidays ah pushed the official dahl out to friday one of the problems president biden inherits on his first full

day of office is a growing wealth gap the so-called k-shaped recovery is adding wealth to the top 1% of folks out there, while many at the bottom remain jobless robert frank is looking at the policy possibilities that the biden administration might use to close that gap in the k robert >> dom, the top 1% added $5 trillion to their collective wells. you add in the stock market gains into the fourth quarter, and you are looking at probably the largest recent wealth gap in recent history the 1% now control 31% of the nation's entire wealth, so if you look at the billionaires, they have done even better they have added nearly a trillion to their wealth just since covid. there were 56 new billionaires created just last year the biggest drivers? stocks in financial assets the value of corporate equities

and mutual fund shares growing by more than $4 trillion in the last three quarters of 2020. four-fifths of the entire wealth gained last year came from stocks biden's biggest challenge is he needs low interest rates and fiscal spending for all the policies, but those are the same forces expanding the wealth gap. all of this added to the political pressure to raise taxes. so, dom, this will be a fight on the one side, the monetary/fiscal policy that drives up assets of the wealth,, and one that battles inequality. how actively are you hearing that everybody is worried? is everybody just expecting taxes go higher? and at what point? who should be worried?

billionaires anybody making over $100,000 exactly what is it >> what's so interesting about where we are, the wealthy, even the affluent, 200, 250-plus, are all absolutely convinced and certain they will see higher tax this is year in 2021 if you look at the stock market,ic either deduce the stock market is either in denial or doesn't think that higher corporate tax rates, which are part of biden's plans are likely so you've got this huge disconnect between what the market seems to be signaling, which is that major tax increases are not likely, and all the wealthy and affluent people i talk to, and all the accountants who i speak with, are absolutely concern they will see tax increaseses. someone will prove to be right >> robert frank, thank for you that we've talk to you later on well, here with more on that

challenge for the biden administration, mike peroli. we have the buying of bonds and other assets here. we obviously know what that's done, not just right now, but over the past decade or so, to the wealthiest of americans. you have that situation on one hand on the other hand, you have massive amounts of stimulus and spenting that have both taken place and looking to be proposed more right now with a ballooning deficit. it almost seems like interest rates need to stay low to help with that deficit but that could exacerbate this sure >> i think it's hard for the

administration to directly address the wealth gap, but i think they can address the income gap i think the first thing we have to remember is a high pressure probably helps lower household incomes the most, so soon to be secretary yellen is a big advocate of that if we can get those -- over time that will help narrow the wealth gap. how do you do that i think keeping monetary policy loose is one half of this -- the other obviously is fiscal support, which got a fillup on in december, and presumably we'll get more here in the first quarter. so i think that's, you know, in my opinion the most important way to get -- for the

administration to really think about addressing not necessarily the wealth gap, but the income gap. the two over time are strongly related. >> so the point of the ppp program is to keep viable businesses afloat until we get back to normalcy if there were no vaccine and we thought the coronavirus was going to be a pandemic for quarters and years to come, ppp would be throwing good money after bad, but if we think that come the summertime these businesses can reopen, then it makes a lot of sense to keep them afloat. so i think the fact there's actually light at the end of the tunnel doesn't mean we should pull back, but strengthens the case for keeping these businesses afloat until we get to the end of the tunnel.

>> one of the things we focus on is the notion the employment picture is going to be such a key to what will happen to getting back on track here are there certain places one your university, your model that are more important than others is there a certain set of jobs that needs to get the economy back on track? >> i think this gets back to the initial question about the wealth and income gap. where do we still see job shortfalls overwhelmingly in lower paid service industries, things like hospitality, restaurants and so forth, that also tends to be lower educated, lower paid jobs. presumably to get back to some sense of normalcy, those jobs will need to come back obviously it's hard to do that as long as the pandemic is making it different to engage in

these kinds of activities, which strengthens the case until we get back to that time. hopefully that's in the summer, and i would alsoal that one of the other areas where the labor market looks damaged is on the ploy side so say labor force sorb still rather subdued to what it was before the pandemic. probably a good part of that is parents who have to stay at home to help with their kids school, home schooling if we could normalize the school situation, that could normalize the labor situation. you have those pieces in a you just laid out that are more tied to services and basically the reopening of the economy and roll-out, then on the other seed, where we are seeing some strength -- or more signs of strength is really manufacturing

in the industrial side of the economy. i wonder how you think about to what this you think is a mixed bag, and how that plays out between those two pieces of the economy? >> just last week, we saw the retail sales number for december was weak, as we would expect he on the other hand, can you point to manufacturing what we're seeing is interest-sensitive sectors are holding up well here housing, capital spending, thus manufacturing. that's been an important bridge, keeping the economy afloat presumably, as the vaccine roll-out proceeds and the economy normalizes, interest rates will move higher, so we may see a little less exuberance, but that's okay, as long as the service sectors are normalizing. i think we have this very unbalanced growth picture, where consumer services are dead on

the floor and a lot of the -- sectors of the economy are booming. i think normalizes as we go through the summer months, we should see that imbalance in sectoral balance some. >> what we're seeing more clarity is in the interest ray picture, right a lot of folks i'm talking to are pointing to the difference in yield in nominal treasuries that rate implies that people are seeing the highest levels of inflation expectations, price hike expectations for 10, 20, 30 years on average that we have seen since before the pandemic, well before the pandemic in 2018, so how much are people expecting the economy is pretty much going to be on track in the coming months and years? >> right, we are seeing market-based measures start to pick up. i would say maybe normalize. they're note really that high,

right? if you extract the message being given from the market, we're still not expected to achieve the fed's 2% inflation objective for their core pce measures. its certainly working better than it was, or the market's expectations are still up. they're still probably down from where they were still five years ago. 9 market is feeling a bit better about the inflation picture. but i think we still have further to go in that regard before, you know, people at the fed can say the market is actually -- their views are consistent with the fed's goals for overshooting that 2% inflation objective sometime in the future >> you don't buy into the inflation as a real risk here argument here that's brewing on ways and the possibility we can't see a re-emerging of the bond vigilantes?

>> i think it will pick up as the year progresses, just as growth progresses we should see the unemployment rate come down. we may have a month or two of inflation scares, but i don't think we'll see real enduring inflation pressures probably for at least two, three years from now. >> mike feroli, we covered a lot. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. well, now it's time for a little look at the power movers, started with united airlines results were bad, $1.9 billion of net loss, but we expected that if you're buying stocks now, you're betting on the recovery now, so the ceo is saying don't expect the recovery to start with the spring break until this april. ford, up 35% already in 2021, just a few weeks in. earlier, you can see there, we talked about the solar stocks. look at the solar etf, t.a.n.,

get it 250% over the course of one year, that's an etf where people invest to try to avoid some big swings here. morgan, back over to you. >> tan bitcoin meantime down 10%, 20% in a week. some are concerned about the incoming administration's attitude toward cryptocurrency did janet yellen cause the sell-off >> her comments may be adding to some of that fear on more regulation, but some analysts say oversight is actually a good thing and could help make bitcoin more legitimate. the nominee said cryptocurrencies are, quote, a concern for terrorist financing and money laundering, and the

government need to examine ways to curtail that. some see that as more hostility toward crypto, but gary gensler w0rkd up the obama administration, but recently has been teach being blockchain and fin tech he warned regulators in 2018, he pushed back against some comments about bitcoin as a ponzi scheme, and crypto has exposed some weaknesses. i'm told that his knock of networks -- biden's s.e.c. has a lot to tackle in crypto. for one there's a lawsuit against ripple for allegedly selling xrp as an unregistered security, and of course proposals for a long-awaited

bitcoin etf. back to you guys. >> i'm listening to you break this down. it begs the question is it etf -- a cryptoetf now inevitable >> that's what folks are saying, a lot of hope and optimism being put in gensler, that has been shot down multiple times so it's not clear that as really changed, but the bitcoin etf is seen as another way to make it easier to buy bitcoin. so a lot of hope around an eventual bitcoin etf. >> one of the issues for a lot of institutional investors is the access to the financial side of things, it could be the future side of things, tucked be actual crypt on occurrences themselves we heard blackrock -- we're going to hold up a second. i'm sorry. we have the president of the united states making his remarks right now.

>> good afternoon. before i begin today's announcement, let me take a few moments to thank all the law enforcement folks they did, all the military personnel, from all across the federal state and lo localsh and a special thanks to the national guard it was an unprecedented situation, hopefully we will not have to do it again, and everyone handled it with the duty and honor we respect. now to today's announcement. vice president harris and i were joined by members of our covid-19 team, response team, dr. tony fauci, or chief covid medical adviser. javier becerra, or nominee for

secretary of health and human services, or nominee for surgeon general. dr. rochelle walenski, and jeff zients, and natalie quillen, who are managing this whole effort yesterday, yesterday during mire inaugural address, i offered a salient prayer and silent prayer i wanted for people to understand what happened, our prayers for the 400,000 who have lost their lives on tuesday, jill and i, kamala and doug, stood at the reflecting pool and joined americans all across the country to remember those 400,000 moms and dads, husbands and wives,

children, sons, daughters, and i want at that moment that to heal, we must remember to heal, we must remember. it's important to do that as a nation we must also act, though, not just remember. yet for the past year we couldn't rely on the federal government to with the urgency and focus and coordination we needed and we have seen the tragic cost of that failure. 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day. to date, more than 24 million americans, 24 million americans have been infected to put that in context, america makes up 4% of the world's population but 25% of the world's confirmed covid-19 and nearly 20% of all the covid-19 deaths. and we have 4% of the world's population the pandemic has

disproportionately impacted on blacks, la tenno asks native americans who are about four times as likely to be hospitalized ander inially three times more likely to die were the covid-19 pandemic than white americans. hospitals are out of beds. schoo businesses are closed for good schools are caught in between. while the vaccine has been a symbol of so much hope, the roll out to be a dismal failure so far. i understand why people are frustrated, why mayors fell like they are left on their own without a clear national plan to get theme through the crisis let me be clear, things will continue to get worse before they get better. the memorial we held two nights ago will not be our last the death toll will likely top 500,000 next month and the case also continue to mount

we didn't get into this mess overnight. et cetera going to take months for us to turn thing around. but let me be equally clear. we will get through this we will defeat this pandemic and to a nation waiting for action, let me be the clearest on this point -- help is on the way. today d today i am unveiling a national strategy on covid-19, an executive actions to beat this pandemic this plan reflects the ideas i set forward during the campaign and further refined over the past three months it consists of my transition team's task force, tony fauci and the team here today and other experts put this plan together our national strategy is comprehensive. it's based on science, not politics it's based on truth, not denial. and it's detailed. you can review this entire plan, this entire plan, by going to

white house.gov. it is so detailed -- it is 198 pages. and it's in complete detail that we are going do. our plan starts with mounting an aggressive safe and effective vaccination campaign the meet our goal of administering 100 million shots in our first 100 days in office we are on day one. this will be one of the greatest operational challenges our nation has ever undertaken and i am committed to gettings it done. we are committed to getting it done and i explained -- as i explained last week, we will move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinate ford free and create more places for them to get vaccinated to mobilize more medical teams to get shots in peoples' arms and increase vaccine supply and get it out the door as fast as possible yesterday we got started

we directed the federal emergency management agency, fema, to start standing up the first federally supported community vaccination centers with the goal of standing up 100 centers within the next month. the centers for disease control and prevention will launch the federal pharmacy program to make vaccines available to communities in their local pharmacies beginning early -- i think by the 7th or 8th of february in very early february we will also task the department of health and human services to prepare and expand the pool of medical professionals who can administer the vaccine, administer the vaccine and to ensure that we have enough vaccinators, the people doing the vaccines to meet the nation's needs, and quickly. in addition to this effort, our administration will be asking congress to fund -- for the funds to grow the public health work force we also are going to take

immediate steps to partner with governs, mayors, and other local officials, who we have been talking to all along who are the front lines of this fight. we directed fema to establish a covid response liaison for each state, which means every state will have a point person at the federal level to maximize cooperation between the federal government and the states. and where it falls short, to be made known about it -- to be made known lead immediately. this is the model we used to respond to hurricane sandy, which i was deeply involved with in just a few moments, i am going to sign a declaration to immediately begin reimbursing states 100% for the use of their national guards to help covid relief efforts, something democrats and republican governors alike have called for. but the brutal truth is, and it is going to take months before we can get the majority of

americans vaccinated so while we increase vaccinations, we are going to take steps necessary now to slow the spread of the disease as well one of our 100-day challenges is asking the american people to mask up for the first 100 days, the next 99 days the masks became a partisan issue, unfortunately but it is a patriotic act. but for a few months, to wear a mask new york vaccines, the fact is that they are the single best thing we can do. they are even more important than the vaccines, because they take time to work. if we do this as americans, the experts say by wearing a mask from now until april we would save more than 50,000 lives going forward. 50,000 lives i am asking every american to mask up for the next 100 days. yesterday i signed an executive

action that requires masks and social distancing on federal property today, we will be signing additional executive action to extend masking requirements on interstate travel like on trains, planes, and buses. and in light of the new covid variants that you are learning about, we are instituting now a new measure for individuals flying into the united states from other countries in addition to wearing masks, everyone flying to the united states from another country will need to test before they get on that plane, before they depart and quarantine when they arrive in america our national plan launch as full-scale war-time effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it when i say wartime, people kind of look at me like, war time

as i said last night, 400,000 americans have died that's more than have died in all of world war ii 400,000. this is a wartime untaking today i am signing the executive action to use the defense production act and all other available authorities to direct all federal agencies and private industry to accelerate the making of everything that is needed to protect, test, vaccinate, and take care of our people we have already identified suppliers. and we are working with them to move the plan forward. look, our strategy includes a plan to safely reopen schools and business while protecting our workers. today, we are directing the department of education and the department of health and human services to immediately provide schools and communities with clear guidance and resources to safely reopen the schools and child care centers

we are putting -- by the way, when you do that, think of all the people who can get back to work -- all the mothers and singer fathers who are staying home taking care of their children we are going to put the pull force of the federal government behind expanding testing by launching a covid-19 pandemic testing board this effort will ensure that we get testing the where it is needed and where it's needed most, helping schools and businesses reopen safely, and protecting the most vulnerable like those who live in long-term care facilities and for the millions of workers, many of whom are people of color, immigrants, and low-wage workers, who continue to put their lives on the line to keep this country going through the pandemic, i'm calling for the enforcement of a more stringent worker safety standard so that you are better protected from this virus while you have to continue to work to protect the rest of us

our plan also protects those most at risk and works for everyone, of all races, and urban and rural communities alook. today, i am formalizing the health equity task force that we announced in the transition led by the brilliant dr. marcello nunez-smith w.h.o. is going to ensure that equality is at the core of every decision we make that includes addressing vaccine hesitancy and building trust in communities as well as fighting disinformation campaigns that are already under way. above all, our plan is to restore public trust we will make sure that science and public -- that scientists and public health experts will speak directly to you. that's why you are going to be hearing a lot more from dr. fauci again. not from the president, but from the real, genuine experts and sign scientists we are going to make sure they

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