Biden names health team to tackle pandemic

US president-elect Joe Biden said he wants his health team to bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigour, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced which is getting the coronavirus pandemic under control.

Washington:US President-elect Joe Biden has announced some nominations and appointments of his health team.

In a statement on Monday, Biden said he was nominating Xavier Becerra, Attorney General of California, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xinhua news agency reported.

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If confirmed, Becerra, a former US Congressman from California, will be the first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which will oversee the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Biden said he has tapped Vivek Murthy to serve as US Surgeon General, a post the research scientist held between 2014 and 2017, and picked Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The President-elect also said he has appointed Marcella Nunez-Smith, an expert on health care disparities, to serve as the Covid-19 equity task force chair, while naming Jeff Zients, former director of the National Economic Council, coordinator of the Covid-19 response and a presidential counsellor.

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Anthony Fauci, America's top expert on infectious diseases and an adviser to six US Presidents, will serve as a chief medical adviser on Covid-19 to Biden and continue in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

According to Biden, addressing the pandemic, which has infected 14,933,847 people and killed 283,631 others in the US, will be a priority for his administration.

IANS