Biden announces advisory board for COVID-19

By Troy Scott
December 9, 2020

President-elect Joe Biden has named 13 health officials to his COVID-19 advisory board on Nov. 9, as his team prepares for the transition of power early next year.

Joe Biden“Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0Joe Biden

A press release from the Biden-Harris team said “the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board will be led by co-chairs Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Vivek Murthy.”

Kessler was the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and he has worked under George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He also is a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. Murthy was the former surgeon general of the United States who served from 2014 to 2017 under presidents Barack Obama and briefly Donald Trump.

The press release also named 11 other medical officials to the advisory board, which includes Dr. Luciana Borio, Dr. Rick Bright, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Dr. Atul Gawande, Dr. Celine Gounder, Dr. Julie Morita, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Loyce Pace, Dr. Robert Rodriguez and Dr. Eric Goosby.

“The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations,” Biden said. Biden will be taking over the presidency on Jan. 20 with cases raging across the country.

“Shutting down businesses and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks could help keep the coronavirus pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed,” Osterholm, an advisory board member, said. This comment comes a week after going on record saying that the country was going into “COVID hell”.

ASMBiodefense 2012 - H5N1 Research Discussion“ASMBiodefense 2012 – H5N1 Research Discussion” by Microbe World is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

“A nationwide lockdown would drive the number of new cases and hospitalizations down to manageable levels while the world awaits a vaccine,” Osterholm said. He also said the first lockdown was not strict enough to make a real impact.

A poll was sent out to Cabrini students asking if a four- to six-week lockdown would be beneficial. A total of 102 students responded with 68 saying yes and 34 disagreeing. “[A lockdown] would help because it will stop the spread,” Puja Neopaney, sophomore business major, said.

Asking the same question to college students in the tri-state area the students had a similar response. “Assuming everyone actually follows the guidelines, a four- to six-week lockdown is all that is needed,” Kieran Nashad, a junior at TCNJ, said.

Parisa Parsa, a nurse practitioner, in New Jersey, agrees with the idea of a lockdown. “With the surge of cases going up across the country, I think that people should settle down more and limited their traveling and interaction with other people,” Parsa said. Parsa works at CVS pharmacy in Willingboro, New Jersey. The state, in general, has COVID cases rising rapidly with an influx of patients in the hospitals.

With the country going through the holiday season while COVID-19 surging through people are sacrificing their normal traditions. This is not the case for all people as the fear of the virus being spread. About 1 million Americans a day packed airports and planes over the weekend.

The challenge that awaits is going to be a very steep one as the country not only transitions to a new leader but also to what seems to be a more strict and comprehensive response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

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Troy Scott

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