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WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) – President-elect Joe Biden on Monday elected California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as secretary of health and human services as one of his administration’s top officials in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, who will take office on January 20, also appointed Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, to head the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Biden formally appointed Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as his chief medical adviser on the virus.
Biden appointed Jeff Zients, an economic adviser https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2II2BN known for his managerial skills, as a coronavirus “czar” to oversee the response that will soon include an unprecedented operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a new vaccine, coordinating efforts among multiple federal agencies.
“This team of world-class medical experts and public servants will be ready on day one to mobilize all resources from the federal government to expand testing and masking,” Biden said in a statement, adding that they would “oversee the safe, equitable, and free distribution of treatments and vaccines. “
More than 282,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to a Reuters tally. Authorities in California, the nation’s most populous state with about 40 million residents, on Monday forced much of the state to close its stores and stay home the day after it reported a record of more than 30,000 new cases.
Biden chose Becerra, 62, a former Latino congressman, as he faces more pressure to add diversity to his cabinet appointments, including complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the number of Latinos.
Biden has announced the top nominees for his economic and national security teams. The Democrat has forged ahead with the transition to the White House even as Republican President Donald Trump refuses to grant the November 3 election and makes a failed effort to overturn the results.
Courts have rejected dozens of Trump legal challenges, the latest on Monday when a federal judge in Detroit launched an attempt to decertify Biden’s election victory in Michigan.
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office would re-certify the state’s election results after a third count confirmed Biden’s victory. Georgia voters will be appointed on Tuesday and will meet on December 14, the date set for the Electoral College to formalize the result.
Raffensperger said that continued discredited claims about voter fraud are “hurting our state.” Two second-round elections for the United States Senate, scheduled for January 5, will determine which party controls the chamber.
Meanwhile, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has led legal challenges in several states, was being treated at a Washington hospital after testing positive for the virus.
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Biden’s election of Becerra adds a politician to a health effort that would otherwise rely heavily on government administrators and health experts.
During his time in Congress, Becerra played a role in passing the Affordable Care Act, Democratic President Barack Obama’s major domestic policy achievement. In his current position in California, he leads a coalition of 20 states defending the program better known as Obamacare against Republican attacks, including in a case before the Supreme Court last month.
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, described the healthcare team’s selections as “critical in the fight to crush the coronavirus and uphold the right of all Americans to affordable, quality healthcare.” .
Fauci said he would be involved in all aspects of the response.
“Obviously, this is a huge challenge that we are all going to face across the country as we come out of the winter months,” Fauci told CNN.
Biden also chose Vivek Murthy, a physician and former surgeon general, to return for a second term as a general surgeon. He chose Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor at Yale School of Medicine, to lead a group to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and Latinos.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and John Whitesides; additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; written by Grant McCool; edited by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
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