Wasting no time to start enacting his forthcoming administration’s plan for tackling COVID-19, new president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, has unveiled his coronavirus advisory team. “Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” he stated.
The Biden
transition team announced a slate of medical and public health experts, with
three distinguished co-chairs leading the board: Dr. Vivek Murthy (a former
Surgeon General), Dr. David Kessler (a professor of pediatrics and
former FDA commissioner) and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith (Yale School of
Medicine physician and researcher).
The other members
of the task force include:
*Dr. Luciana
Borio, infectious disease expert and public health administrator who has
held leadership positions at the FDA and National Security Council
*Dr. Rick Bright, immunologist and vaccine expert who previously served as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (Dr. Bright is also known as a whistleblower regarding the current administration’s touting of hydroxychloroquine)
*Dr. Ezekiel
Emanuel, oncologist and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and
Health Policy at University of Pennsylvania, who served as a special advisor
for health policy under President Obama
*Dr. Atul
Gawande, surgeon and public health researcher who was a senior advisor in
the Department of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration
*Dr. Eric
Goosby, infectious disease expert who was previously the U.S. Global AIDS
Coordinator and currently serves as UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis.
*Dr. Celine
Gounder, a medical journalist and infectious disease specialist who has
served as an assistant commissioner and director of the Bureau of Tuberculosis
Control at NYC’s Department of Health.
*Dr. Julie
Morita, Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and
former commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health
*Dr. Michael
Osterholm, epidemiologist who formerly advised the Health and Human
Services secretary under President George W. Bush and currently serves as
Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the
University of Minnesota
*Loyce Pace,
a Master of Public Health who serves as Executive Director and President of the
Global Health Council and has worked on the ground to deliver health programs
in several countries
*Dr. Robert
Rodriguez, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of
California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
The diverse
team’s expertise in infectious disease, immunology, epidemiology, vaccine
development and public health should ensure that they are able to address the
array of challenges presented by the pandemic, from therapeutic research to the
implementation of a vaccine.
Many members of the task force have served in previous presidential administrations, and most have already gained experience researching, managing or treating the coronavirus in their current positions. Dr. Robert Rodriguez even went to his hometown of Brownsville, Texas this summer to help with a surge that was occurring in that area along the U.S.-Mexico border.
President-elect
Biden has already had his first meeting with the team, and next they will begin
consulting with U.S. state and local officials to work on plans to stop the
spread and to strategize on how to safely reopen schools and businesses
currently shut down because of the pandemic.
Our Life Sciences teams at Elsevier are eager to follow their progress as we continue to share up-to-the-minute information related to COVID-19 through our Coronavirus Research Hub.
