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WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the scientists who will lead his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, outlining his plans to prioritize Covid-19 from the start.
The advisory board will be led by three co-chairs: epidemiologist and former Federal Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner David Kessler, former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and Yale professor of public health Marcella Nunez-Smith, according to a statement from the Biden transition. team.
In addition, the board will have ten members, ranging from immunologists and epidemiologists to biodefense experts and prominent public health officials.
The announcement came before US company Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech announced on Monday that a vaccine they had jointly developed had so far shown 90% efficacy in preventing infections in ongoing phase 3 trials, news that it encouraged scientists, politicians and markets.
Covid-19 has left more than 237,000 people dead in the US, the worst death toll globally, and it is rising across the country, which last week rejected Donald Trump in a scathing poll.
According to a Johns Hopkins University tracker, the number of new cases in the U.S. has surpassed 100,000 every 24 hours for several days in a row, and is approaching 10 million in total, showing no signs of slowing down to despite Trump’s claim that the world’s largest economy is “rounding the corner.”
The pandemic remains “one of the most important battles our administration will face, and science and experts will inform me,” Biden said in the statement.
The board will help shape its focus on increasing cases across the country, as well as ensuring that a safe vaccine is distributed efficiently while protecting populations at risk.
The president-elect has promised that they will create a plan that he will begin to implement on the first day of his presidency.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have announced that they will receive a joint debriefing on the virus Monday in Wilmington, Delaware from their advisory team.
Then, Biden will deliver comments on the coronavirus and economic recovery.
