Biden is bringing on some of Trump’s toughest Covid-19 critics as advisers. They’re all scientists, doctors, and public health experts.
President-elect Joe Biden promised that his Covid-19 pandemic response would be guided by science. His transition team has announced the scientific board of advisers who will guide his administration-in-waiting’s decision-making.
The board, according to the Biden team’s transition website, has three co-chairs, all medical doctors:
The rest of the board consists of doctors, scientists, and public health experts, many of whom have been very active and vocal in the pandemic response to date:
Many of the people on this list have been offering evidence-based advice to the government this year — through op-eds, media appearances, and in the case of Rick Bright, an 89-page whistleblower complaint— but have been largely ignored. Finally, their expertise is being taken seriously by the incoming White House.
This team, and the incoming Biden administration, have their work cut out for them. The US continues to break new daily case records for Covid-19, with no end to the climb in case counts in sight. Meanwhile, hospitalizations are nearing new highs and deaths are on an upward trajectory. By the time the Biden team takes power, they’ll possibly be fighting a pandemic that’s raging even more intensely.
The new administration’s work may be made more difficult considering the US Senate may still be in Republican hands, and may reject the administration’s requests for funding. That said, a Biden administration could still do a lot to help fight the pandemic, as Vox’s German Lopez writes.
“Perhaps most importantly, Biden could, on day one, stop the constant stream of lies and misinformation that have come out of Trump and his White House daily,” Lopez writes. “That begins with Biden’s promise to use his bully pulpit to empower scientists — put them at the head of the federal response, as well as in charge of regular briefings to the public about what’s going on.”
Hopefully, this group can help Biden achieve this most basic goal.
Author: Brian Resnick
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