US President-elect Joe Biden announces coronavirus task force line-up
- Group will be led by former US surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy, health care equity advocate Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith and former FDA commissioner Dr David Kessler
- Biden’s task force also includes Dr Rick Bright, an immunologist and virologist, who opposed the use of malaria drugs for the coronavirus
Health care equity advocate Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, who is a Yale University professor of internal medicine and public health, and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr David Kessler, who was appointed by former president George HW Bush, were also named as co-chairs.
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Biden calls for Americans to wear masks, as US faces 'dark winter' amid pandemic
The task force line-up announcement broke shortly before news that another cabinet member of President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19, as a new outbreak of the illness in the administration, which has refused to concede to Biden, appears to be tied to an election night party at the White House. Longtime Trump ally and campaign aide David Bossie has also contracted the disease, according to multiple US news outlets.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, whose diagnosis was first reported by ABC on Monday, attended the November 3 party, where, according to media reports, few attendees wore masks. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who tested positive last week, also attended the event. There is no confirmation that the officials contracted the illness at the White House.
Bossie had been coordinating events in states where vote counts were close as part of the Trump campaign’s legal fight to contest the election, National Public Radio reported, adding that he had traveled to the battleground state of Arizona last week for one such event.
Covid-19 infections first spiked in the White House last month, when Trump himself was diagnosed and airlifted to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The president left the hospital three days later after a being treated with an experimental antibody therapy developed by American biotechnology company Regeneron and other therapies.
In addition to Meadows, four others in Trump’s orbit including campaign aide Nick Trainer subsequently tested positive last week, according to CNN, which also reported that Carson was seen without a mask at a Trump campaign rally in Michigan on October 30.