Rochelle Walensky

"The pandemic illuminated inequities that have existed for generations and revealed for all of America a known, but often unaddressed, epidemic impacting public health: racism," Walensky said.

The new funds will enable K-12 schools to ramp up screening testing, which can "identify asymptomatic disease and prevent clusters before they start," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

A new study found no difference in infection rates between schools in Massachusetts that required 3 feet of distance and those requiring 6 feet, so long as everyone wore masks.

A study published Friday in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that cases and deaths decreased after states enacted mask mandates and increased after they reopened on-premises dining.

With new cases teetering at about 60,000 to 70,000 per day, new hyper-transmissible variants and state rollbacks of coronavirus restrictions, the CDC chief urges Americans to remain vigilant.

"The last thing — the last thing — we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your masks. Forget it, it still matters," Biden said.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a Friday briefing that infectious new variants may be threatening to derail the country's recent progress.

President-elect Joe Biden has said that addressing the coronavirus pandemic is his top priority. Here are some of the people he is putting in charge of that big task.