Biden Builds Out Health Team with Xavier Becerra Named to Lead HHS

US President-elect Joe Biden released more of his health team picks on Monday, nominating California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). In addition, Vivek Murthy, who was the US Surgeon General from 2014 to 2017, has been selected to return to that role, and Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, was picked to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while Anthony Fauci will stay on as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

“This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor and crisis-management experience to…getting the pandemic under control,” Biden said in a statement, adding that one of the team’s focuses will be to “oversee the safe, equitable, and free distribution of treatments and vaccines.” The news follows the unveiling on November 9 of Biden’s coronavirus taskforce, which will be co-chaired by Murthy, along with former FDA Commissioner David Kessler and Marcella Nunez-Smith.

According to the Biden-Harris transition team website, Becerra’s work has “focused on…fighting to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all Californians,” adding that last month he also led the defence of the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court on behalf of 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Fauci pegged as chief advisor on COVID-19

Meanwhile, aside from retaining his role at the helm of NIAID, Fauci has been pegged by Biden to serve as his chief medical adviser on COVID-19. Fauci, who said he accepted the offer “right on the spot,” indicated that he would be involved in all aspects of the coronavirus response, adding that “obviously, this is an enormous challenge that we’re all going to be facing throughout the country as we emerge into and from the winter months.”

Biden also picked Jeff Zients to coordinate the country’s COVID-19 response efforts, which will soon include a large-scale operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a new vaccine, pulling together efforts across multiple federal agencies. FDA advisory committee meetings are scheduled to meet on December 10 and 17 to discuss respective COVID-19 vaccine candidates from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.