Joe Biden announces his COVID-19 task force

The Transition COVID-19 advisory board will be led by co-chairs Dr. David Kessler, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from 2014-2017, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale University and associate dean for health equity research at the Yale School of Medicine.

Serving as advisers to the Transition on COVID-19 are Dr. Beth Cameron, vice president for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative and former senior director for global health security and biodefense on the White House National Security Council staff, and Dr. Rebecca Katz, professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. They will work closely with the Advisory Board.

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Members of the task force also include:

• Luciana Borio, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, and specializes in biodefense, emerging infectious diseases, medical product development, and complex public health emergencies. She also served as Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy and Acting Chief Scientist at the Food and Drug Administration, and Director of FDA’s Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats.

• Rick Bright, an American immunologist, virologist, and former public health official, and former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority 2016-2020 and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. He also previously served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the United States Department of Defense.

• Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an oncologist and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. From January 2009 to January 2011, he served as special advisor for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Since 1997, he has served as chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health.

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• Atul Gawande, the Cyndy and John Fish Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He previously served as a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration.

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• Celine Gounder, Clinical Assistant Professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and cares for patients at Bellevue Hospital Center. From 1998 to 2012, Dr. Gounder studied TB and HIV in South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Ethiopia and Brazil. She is a former Assistant Commissioner and Director of the Bureau of Tuberculosis Control at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

• Julie Morita, Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Morita helped lead the Chicago Department of Public Health for nearly two decades as medical director, chief medical officer and commissioner. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has served on many state, local, and national health committees.

• Michael Osterholm, Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm previously served as a Science Envoy for Health Security on behalf of the State Department. From 1975 to 1999, he worked in the Minnesota Department of Health.

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• Loyce Pace is the Executive Director and President of Global Health Council. nd health services worldwide.

• Robert Rodriguez graduated from Harvard Medical School and currently serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine.

• Eric Goosby, Professor of Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine. During the Clinton administration, Dr. Goosby was the founding director of the Ryan White CARE Act, the largest federally funded HIV/AIDS program.

While the U.S. makes up approximately 4% of the world’s population, it has had approximately 20% of all COVID-19 cases. As of Monday, the U.S. had reported nearly 10 million COVID-19 infections and 237,587 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, just ahead of India (nearly 8.5 million cases to date). The U.S. has a population of 328 million people versus 1.35 billion in India. The U.S. daily tally of infections topped 100,000 on Sunday, a fifth straight day of record-setting levels.

On Monday morning, Pfizer, BioNTech said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate BNT162b2 is 90% effective in first interim analysis of Phase 3 study in trial participants without previous evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Pfizer Chief Executive Dr. Albert Bourla sounded an optimistic tone in a statement: “Today is a great day for science and humanity.” Assuming the vaccine is effective and reaches the market, there will be many distribution issues to solve in the months ahead.

The companies said they are planning to submit for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the Food and Drug Administration soon after the safety milestones are met, currently expected in the third week of November. Biden urged people to still take precautions. “It is also important to understand that the end of the battle against COVID-19 is still months away,” he said in a statement, adding, “It will be many more months before there is widespread vaccination in this country.”

In addition to BioNTech SE BNTX, +13.92% and partner Pfizer PFE, +7.62%, several other companies are also working on coronavirus vaccines. Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +4.37%, Merck & Co. MERK, -0.64%, Moderna MRNA, +8.30% ; Sanofi SAN, +17.05%, and GlaxoSmithKline GSK, +2.82%. Should a vaccine come to market, frontline workers and those with underlying illnesses are expected to be first in line.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America told MarketWatch on Saturday that Biden’s plans for combating the pandemic reflects its own key tenets. “Since the pandemic began, IDSA has called for a comprehensive and well-coordinated response rooted in the best available scientific data,” said Amanda Jezek, IDSA’s senior vice president of public policy and government relations. Jezek also said the IDSA supported Biden’s promise to update the public regularly.

The Biden transition team’s statement added: “President-elect Biden has pledged to bring leadership to the COVID pandemic, which continues to claim thousands of lives each week, by curbing the spread of the disease, providing free treatment to those in need, and elevating the voices of scientists and public health experts. The COVID-19 Advisory Board will help guide the Biden-Harris Transition in planning for the President-elect’s robust federal response.”

Members of the advisory board have served in previous administrations, the statement added. “These leading scientists and public health experts will consult with state and local officials to determine the public health and economic steps necessary to get the virus under control, to deliver immediate relief to working families, to address ongoing racial and ethnic disparities, and to reopen our schools and businesses safely and effectively,” it added.