WASHINGTON —President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris announced Monday the public health experts that will be making up their COVID-19 advisory board once they take office in January.
President-elect Joe Biden
“The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations.”
In his first address to the nation as President-Elect Saturday night, Biden announced one of his first actions would be putting the panel in place — a signal of Biden’s primary focus on getting the coronavirus pandemic in check when he takes office in January.
As previously reported, the team will be led by 3 co-chairs: former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, along with Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of medicine at Yale University.
In total, 13 co-chairs and members comprise the board, including former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Dr. Rick Bright, who made headlines earlier this year when he resigned from his role at the National Institute of Health and filed a whistleblower complaint over “an abuse of authority or gross mismanagement” at the Department of Health and Human Services on the COVID-19 response.
Biden’s policy will also expanding access testing and contact tracing across the country and providing access to PPE, along with national guidelines of how the country should move forward as the nation seeks to slow the spread of COVID.
Biden will also seek to implement a mask mandate across the country by working with leaders and the state and local level, as well as creating a plan to develop and equitably distribute a vaccine for COVID-19 once it is identified and approved.
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