With Biden and Harris taking office during a pandemic, several procedural changes must be made during the transition and inauguration to insure safety and create the best perception: actions must be consistent with words.
Biden should not go to the White House to meet with Trump. The White House is a hotbed of Covid 19 infection, and Trump himself is a super spreader. For the same reason, Biden and Trump should not ride together in a limousine from the White House to the Capitol.
The inauguration ceremony itself, televised, should be reduced to a swearing in of Biden and Harris and a speech by the new President. The ceremony should be conducted inside the Capitol, under the rotunda, with the audience, all wearing masks, limited to the number that can fit seated in the room at the social distance of six feet.
There should not be tens of thousands jammed together on the Mall in the January cold of D.C., a parade, inaugural balls at various locations, in all these situations strangers from all over the country mixing together. How could social distancing be maintained? Would everyone wear a mask at all times? What credibility would a Biden/Harris administration have in enforcing science supported restrictions and regulations to fight the virus after sponsoring such a super spreader event of truly epic proportion?
Following the inauguration ceremony, the Bidens should return to Blair House and remain there until the White House and administrative offices are completely fumigated and sanitized as well as possible of any lingering infection.
As soon as reentering Blair House, President Biden should begin the task of undoing the considerable damage of the last four years, starting with orders designed to rein in the virus.
Such changes in the traditional inauguration procedures would surely signal to all of us the gravity of the situation, as if we have to be told after experiencing all the sickness and death of the last eight months.
That is how to start to make America great again.