Biden Announces 3 More Members to COVID-19 Task Force

WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden said Saturday that he will add three new members to the Coronavirus task force as cases of the virus originating from Wuhan continue to rise in the US.

According to The Hill, The Transition said in a statement that Jane Hopkins, Jill Jim and David Michaels will join the team, which is co-chaired by David Kessler, former Indian-American surgeon general Vivek Murthy and Marcella Nunez-Smith. The task force is tasked with assisting Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“As COVID-19 emerges across the country, I need an advisory team and a transition that offers diverse perspectives and points of view. Ms. Hopkins, Dr. Jim, and Dr. Michaels will strengthen the work of the board and will help ensure that our COVID-planning will address inequalities in health outcomes and workforce, “President-elect Biden said in a statement.

According to a statement posted by the transition website Biden-Harris, Hopkins, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, has worked for more than 20 years as a primary care nurse and has a long history in union work, a choice that seems to reflect the emphasis of Biden on appeal. to labor groups. He also received the Black Lives Matter Award from the SEIU Washington State AFRAM Caucus.

While Jim is the executive director of the Navajo Nation Health Department. “For 18 years, he has served urban and tribal communities in state, federal, and non-profit agencies, and most recently in tribal government, serving as a cabinet member for the Navajo Nez-Lizer Nation Administration,” it reads. the website.

The website stated that Michaels is an epidemiologist and professor of environmental and occupational health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University.

“He served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health from 2009 to January 2017, the longest-serving administrator in OSHA history. During the Clinton Administration, Dr. Michaels served as Assistant Secretary for Energy for the Environment, Safety and Health, charged with protecting workers, the community and the environment around the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities, “the website stated.

These announcements by the three new members of the coronavirus task force come after the United States surpassed 13 million COVID-19 cases on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University.