Joe Biden asks Anthony Fauci to join coronavirus team as US daily deaths top 3,000, cases hit 14 million

Name: Dr Anthony Fauci says US in ‘precarious situation’ with coronavirus surge after Thanksgiving
Uploaded: 2020-12-03T19:23:57.000Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: Dr Anthony Fauci says US in ‘precarious situation’ with coronavirus surge after Thanksgiving

US president-elect says he will issue an order for Americans to wear masks for 100 days once he is in office

Ex-Obama official Jeff Zients will take on role of ‘coronavirus tsar’, Vivek Murthy to return as surgeon general

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing in November. Photo: AFP

Reuters

Published: 3:23am, 4 Dec 2020Updated: 11:04pm, 4 Dec 2020

Joe Biden has asked top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci serve as his chief medical adviser and to join the new administration’s Covid-19 team after the president-elect takes office on January 20.

The decision comes as total infections in the United States surge past 14 million, with daily deaths at a record high.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke to Biden and his team preparing to deal with the virus on Thursday, Biden said in an interview with CNN.

“I asked him to stay on in the exact same role as he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well and be part of the Covid team,” Biden said.

Biden also said he would get the Covid-19 vaccine when Fauci says it is safe and would be happy to take it publicly. “It’s important to communicate to the American people it’s safe, safe to do this,” he said.

Despite news that vaccines against the virus may begin to be distributed in the coming weeks, the US is experiencing a new surge in hospitalisations and deaths.

02:01

Dr Anthony Fauci says US in ‘precarious situation’ with coronavirus surge after Thanksgiving

The US recorded more than 210,000 coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University, in an all-time high for the country since the start of the pandemic started.