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WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden selected two former Obama administration officials to high-level positions to help combat COVID-19, including the appointment of Jeff Zients as the White House coronavirus coordinator, it reported. Politico on Thursday (December 3).
Biden’s adviser, Vivek Murthy, will return to his role as Surgeon General, but with a broader portfolio as the pandemic rages across the country, Politico said, citing two people familiar with the decision.
Dealing with the virus that has killed more than 274,000 Americans, as well as the economic consequences of the crisis, is a top priority for Biden once he takes office on January 20.
Politico also said that Marcella Nunez-Smith, co-chair of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, will play a key role in the incoming administration’s response to the pandemic, focusing on disparities.
Current member of the White House coronavirus task force, Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, was scheduled for his first substantive talks with the new administration on Thursday.
Fauci told the media that he looked forward to having a thorough discussion with members of the Biden team working to set priorities and ensure a smooth transition on opening day.
He said that although he had spoken with both Zients and Biden’s White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, in the past, these would be his first “substantive discussions” with Biden’s team.
“I’m looking forward to it. It will probably be the first in a series of a normal type of transition company,” Fauci told MSNBC. A Biden transition official confirmed the meeting.
Fauci told CBS that he wished the process had started earlier. The administration of outgoing President Donald Trump only gave the green light for the transition to begin on November 23.
Trump, a Republican, is contesting the November 3 election, alleging voter fraud but offering no evidence. Numerous legal challenges taking place across the country have not borne fruit, most recently on Thursday when the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take a case brought against election officials in the battlefield state.
SECOND GEAR
As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has been the most prominent member of the White House task force since the pandemic began, often at odds with Trump on how to fight the virus.
Fauci told MSNBC that he hoped to remain in his current position under the Biden administration.
Deaths in the United States from the coronavirus pandemic have surpassed 2,000 for two days in a row as the most dangerous season of the year approaches. Nearly 200,000 new cases were reported in the U.S. Wednesday, with hospitalizations approaching 100,000 patients.
With Pfizer’s vaccine now approved by regulatory authorities in Britain, hopes for a respite rest in the start of widespread vaccinations starting this month.
Zients, a wealthy businessman who has moved between the public sector and US corporations, will oversee the gigantic and unprecedented operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of the new vaccine in the United States, coordinating efforts among multiple federal agencies.
In recent weeks, Zients has served as something of a pandemic liaison with governors and state officials, frequently joining calls to share data and discuss concerns, according to two sources familiar with the calls.
Biden announced that Brian Deese, who helped lead then-President Barack Obama’s efforts to rescue the auto industry during the 2009 financial crisis, will head the National Economic Council.
“I am asking Brian Deese to do this work because he is someone who sees difficult problems and finds solutions that help improve the lives of American families,” Biden said in a video posted by his transition team. “He will be the first to be a true expert on climate policy.”
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