The 9 physicians on Biden's COVID-19 advisory board

Nine physicians were named to President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board, formed to guide his coronavirus response strategy, according to The Washington Post.

They are:

1. Vivek Murthy, MD, who will serve as co-chair. Dr. Murthy was the U.S. surgeon general during the Obama administration. He also was vice admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and co-founded nonprofit organization Doctors for America, a network of more than 18,000 physicians and medical students dedicated to making healthcare affordable. He is an internal medicine physician and co-founder of TrialNetworks, a software technology company focused on clinical trial collaboration.

2. David Kessler, MD, who will serve as co-chair. Dr. Kessler was FDA commissioner under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He was medical director of the hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, dean of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and vice chancellor for medical affairs at the University of California San Francisco.

3. Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, associate dean for health equity research at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., who also will serve as co-chair. Dr. Nunez-Smith also is the director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center and director of the Center for Research Engagement at Yale. Her research focuses on health equity for marginalized populations and supporting healthcare workforce diversity. She is a principle investigator for several National Institutes of Health and foundation-funded research projects, including one on assessing discrimination in healthcare.

4. Zeke Emanuel, MD, PhD, chair of the medical ethics and health policy department at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is also the vice provost for global initiatives and co-director of the Health Transformation Institute with the health system. Dr. Emanuel served as special adviser for health policy to the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House from January 2009 to 2011. He is an oncologist by training and has a PhD in political philosophy from Boston-based Harvard University.

5. Atul Gawande, MD, co-founder and chair of Ariadne Labs and a surgeon at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Gawande is also a Harvard Medical School professor and chair of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization focused on making surgery safer. Dr. Gawande also is chair of Haven, a healthcare venture founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase.

6. Eric Goosby, MD, former President Barack Obama's global AIDS coordinator and a professor of medicine at University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. He was the founding director of the Ryan White CARE Act in 1991 and currently serves as the UN secretary general's special envoy on tuberculosis. Dr. Goosby is director of the University of California San Francisco's Center for Implementation Sciences and provides mentorship in advocacy and policy related to HIV and infectious diseases.

7. Julie Morita, MD, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, responsible for programming, policy, research and communications. She previously led the Chicago Department of Public Health as medical director, chief medical officer and commissioner. Dr. Morita led the Healthy Chicago 2.0 implementation focused on achieving health equity and reducing disparities in immunization coverage. She also served on the CDC's advisory committee on immunization practices.

8. Robert Rodriguez, MD, an emergency medicine professor at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. He is author and co-author of several publications, including one released in September about COVID-19 pandemic disparities in access to emergency and critical care.

9. Celine Gounder, MD, a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. She is a practicing HIV and infectious disease specialist, internist and epidemiologist. She also hosts and produces a podcast on health and social justice and has authored articles for publications including The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Dr. Gounder is making a documentary about the Ebola epidemic in Guinea.

The task force also includes the following nonphysician members:

  • Michael Osterholm, PhD, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
  • Loyce Pace, president and executive director of the Global Health Council
  • Luciana Borio, former medical and biodefense preparedness director for the National Security Council under President Donald Trump
  • Rick Bright, PhD, founding director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority

The health experts who will serve as advisors are:

  • Rebecca Katz, PhD, director of the Center for Global Health Sciences and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.,
  • Beth Cameron, PhD, former global health security and biodefense director on the White House National Security Council under former President Barack Obama.

 

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