This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world.

I'm Farid Zakaria, coming to you live from New York.

Today on the show, President Biden promises a restoration of democracy and of America's engagement with the rest of the globe.

We can make America once again a leading force for good in the world. Biden is swiftly moving away from many of the policies of the last four years.

What is the reaction from American allies and competitors? We'll hear from the United Kingdom, China, Germany and Mexico.

We'll repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. Also, one year since COVID-19 was first diagnosed in America.

There have been 25 million cases here since then and more than 400,000 deaths.

Sanjay Gupta joins me to talk about the vaccines, the new variants and the prospect of herd immunity.

But first, here's my take. President Joe Biden has many competing priorities as he begins his first term.

Dealing with the pandemic, restarting the economy, reestablishing American credibility on the world stage and competing effectively with China.

But it turns out that there's one thing he can do that'll address all these problems at once.

Vaccinate all Americans as quickly as possible. Biden's current goal of vaccinating a million people a day is far too modest.

He should double that, doing whatever it takes to achieve herd immunity for the U.S. by late April or early May.

This will instantly boost America's standing and give the President leverage with everyone, from the Republicans to the Europeans to the Chinese.

Right now, the rollout of the vaccine is flailing. Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, predicted that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of 2020.

In fact, that number barely reached 3 million. The situation has improved since then, but there is still chaos and confusion.

The Trump administration's mishandling of the vaccine rollout follows a string of other public health failures, including bungled policies on testing, tracing, and isolation, as well as the supply of medical equipment.

While the administration did an admirable job funding vaccine development through Operation Warp Speed, it quickly fell back into its familiar hands-off mode once the private sector pulled off that feet.

The states whose varying standards and weak infrastructure make them ill-equipped to carry out a mass vaccination campaign have been forced to improvise with predictable consequences.

And while the Trump administration has plenty of blame on his hands, this is a much larger failure.

As I write in my book Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, the U.S. government has in recent decades become good at just one thing, writing checks.

Its major endeavors have centered around tax cuts and credits, bailouts, and relief payments.

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