Task force: Biden transition team announces coronavirus advisers
The task force is chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. Among the other thirteen members are Dr. Luciana Borio, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act and an ex-Obama health adviser.
Both Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive a briefing from the transition coronavirus advisory board Monday afternoon, per a Sunday evening release from the transition team. Biden will then deliver remarks on his plans to combat the virus and to rebuild the American economy.
Since the outset of the pandemic, Biden pledged repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would listen to the advice from scientists and public health experts about the pandemic if elected president and slammed President Donald Trump’s handling of the virus. In his first remarks as the President-elect, he said he believes the mandate given to the American people includes marshaling “the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time.” The first such battle Biden cited was that to control the virus.
The coronavirus upended the presidential election and provided a stark divide in the race, with Biden pledging to take the pandemic seriously, while Trump diminished the importance of the virus and often complained that it was taking up too much focus on the campaign trail — even after he contracted it himself.
