After a bruising 2020, there is relief and hope on the horizon: Joe Biden is now president-elect of the United States, and a coronavirus vaccine is showing a 90% success rate in breakthrough trials.

Both are heady news for a nation struggling to reunite after last week’s divisive, drawn-out general election; and now battling a third wave of coronavirus cases, a U.S. count averaging about 109,000 new ones daily.

On the election front: Biden topped 270 electoral votes over the weekend, and will become the 46th U.S. president; Kamala Harris also made history to become the U.S.’s first female vice president and the first one of Black and Asian descent.

World leaders were quick to congratulate Biden and Harris — but sadly, not so incumbent Donald Trump, who has refused to concede. Instead, he railed against the election’s legitimacy, without producing any evidence, and has taken several actions to contest Biden’s win.

American elections are complex — with voting laws as varied as the 50 states when it comes to voting methods that can include mail-in balloting, differing ballot-counting timelines as well as deadlines for military and overseas ballots. Such complexity is normal, and the process does take patience, but it’s that very tedious timetable that helps ensure the integrity of the election process and that every vote is secure and counted.

As does any candidate, Trump has the legal right to challenge results — but this should be done with sound legal basis; frivolous, reckless rhetoric only sows discord that Americans can ill afford at this urgent time.

Outpouring for the Biden-Harris win spread across the country over the weekend, from San Francisco, to Madison, Wis., to Atlanta, to New York’s Times Square. But even in celebration, Biden was right to sound an exuberant yet inclusive tone Saturday night, saying: “I will spare no effort, none, or any commitment to turn around this pandemic. … I will govern as an American president. I’ll work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as those who did.”

It was encouraging, then, to see Biden on Monday name his COVID-19 task force of scientists and experts. On the same day, Pfizer announced its astounding 90%-successful clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine, buoying hopes for a robust and coordinated rollout early next year. Make no mistake: It will be on the federal government to lead a successful distribution nationwide, with enough funding and backbone resources to access the vaccines.

Trump remains in office until the Jan. 20 inauguration, and it’s abundantly unclear how he will use the remaining weeks of his presidency. But it’s hoped that federal support will ramp up to help Americans tamp the resurging COVID crisis and stem further economic fallout.

As for the president-elect, “Biden’s policies are the right ones to address the economic crises created by the pandemic,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s analytics. “With such high unemployment, low inflation and zero interest rates, Biden’s proposal to go big on government investment will get us back to full employment fastest. His policies are also targeted to help low- and middle-income households hit hardest by the pandemic.”

Of course, how “big” that scope is will be determined by many factors, not least of all, enough votes in Congress. And at this point, Congress may well remain divided: Republican majority in the Senate, Democratic majority in the House.

A new stimulus bill before year’s end is doubtful. But in the near term: Hawaii’s U.S. Rep. Ed Case and Rep.-elect Kai Kahele noted in a media conference call Monday that an extension of the Dec. 30 deadline to use current CARES Act funds is being worked on, to preserve already allotted federal funds for Hawaii’s residents.

Going forward, it will be imperative for Hawaii’s state and county governments to more efficiently push out the federal dollars, now that disbursements pipelines exist and are working better.

COVID-19 will remain a dangerous force for all Americans this holiday season and well into 2021. It will afflict us all: Democrats, Republicans, independents alike; in urban cities as well as rural areas.

But let’s work on hope, not despair. Fresh, well-informed federal government can bring results to help overcome our shared problems and reach our urgent goals — to control the coronavirus pandemic and to boost our economic recovery.