COVID-19 Advisory Board

The COVID-19 Advisory Board was announced in November 2020 by President-elect of the United States Joe Biden as part of his presidential transition. It was co-chaired by physicians David A. Kessler, Marcella Nunez-Smith, and Vivek Murthy and comprises 13 health experts. The board was then succeeded by the White House COVID-19 Response Team upon Biden's presidency in January 2021.

COVID-19 Advisory Board

Transition logo for the President-elect of the United States Joe Biden
Agency overview
Formed	November 2020
Dissolved	January 20, 2021[1][2]
Superseding agency	White House COVID-19 Response Team
Type	Advisory board
Jurisdiction	United States
Agency executives	Joe Biden, President of the United States Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States Co-chairs, David A. Kessler Vivek Murthy Marcella Nunez-Smith
Website	buildbackbetter.gov

Background

Before naming any White House staff or cabinet appointments, Biden announced that he would appoint a COVID-19 task force, co-chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Yale University epidemiologist Professor Marcella Nunez-Smith.^[3][4] In November 2020, he announced the names of 13 health experts to serve on the COVID-19 Advisory Board.^[5] Biden pledged a more and larger federal government response to the pandemic than Donald Trump, akin to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression.^[6] This would include increased testing for SARS-CoV-2, a steady supply of personal protective equipment, distributing a vaccine and securing money from Congress for schools and hospitals under the aegis of a national "supply chain commander" who would coordinate the logistics of manufacturing and distributing protective gear and test kits. This would be distributed by a "Pandemic Testing Board", also similar to Roosevelt's War Production Board during World War II.^[6] Biden also pledged to invoke the Defense Production Act more aggressively than Trump in order to build up supplies, as well as the mobilization of up to 100,000 Americans for a "public health jobs corps" of contact tracers to help track and prevent outbreaks.^[6]

Jeffrey Zients will work with the advisory board as the incoming White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator (czar).^[7][8] Civil servant and political advisor, Natalie Quillian, will serve as Deputy Coronavirus Response Coordinator.^[9]

Succession

The board was dissolved on January 20, 2021, after President Biden was sworn in.^[1][2]

Members

There were 16 members of the COVID-19 advisory board, appointed by President of the United States Joe Biden. Three of the members, David A. Kessler, Vivek Murthy and Marcella Nunez-Smith, served as co-chairs.

Member		Role	Education	Appointment
	David A. Kessler	Former Commissioner of Food and Drugs Co-chair	Amherst College (BA) University of Chicago (JD) Harvard University (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Marcella Nunez-Smith	Yale School of Medicine associate dean for health equity research Co-chair	Swarthmore College (BA) Thomas Jefferson University (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Vivek Murthy	Former Surgeon General of the United States Co-chair	Harvard University (BA) Yale University (MD, MBA)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Luciana Borio	Former Acting Chief Scientist of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration	George Washington University (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Rick Bright	Former Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority	University of Kansas Auburn University, Montgomery (BS) Emory University (MS, PhD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Ezekiel Emanuel	Former Chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center	Amherst College (BA) Exeter College, Oxford (MS) Harvard University (MD, PhD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Atul Gawande	Brigham and Women's Hospital professor of surgery	Stanford University (BA, BS) Balliol College, Oxford (MA) Harvard University (MD, MPH)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Céline Gounder	New York University School of Medicine assistant professor	Princeton University (BA) Johns Hopkins University (MS) University of Washington, Seattle (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Julie Morita	Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (BS) University of Illinois College of Medicine (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Michael Osterholm	Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy	Luther College (BA) University of Minnesota (MS, MPH, PhD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Loyce Pace	Executive Director and President of the Global Health Council	Stanford University (BS) Johns Hopkins University (MPH)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Robert Rodriguez	UCSF School of Medicine emergency medicine professor	University of Notre Dame (BA) Harvard University (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Eric Goosby	Former United States Global AIDS Coordinator	Princeton University (BA) University of California, San Francisco (MD)	November 9, 2020[10]
	Jane Hopkins	Nurse at Harborview Medical Center and Snoqualmie Hospital		November 28, 2020 [11][12]
	Jill Jim	Executive director of the Navajo Department of Health	Northern Arizona University (BA) University of Utah (MPH, PhD)	November 28, 2020 [13]
	David Michaels	Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health	Columbia University (MPH, PhD)	November 28, 2020 [11]

See also

• Presidency of Joe Biden
• White House Coronavirus Task Force