[ad_1]
Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to Operation Warp Speed, tendered his resignation on Wednesday as part of a plan to hand over the vaccination effort to President-elect Biden’s coronavirus team.
Slaoui’s resignation, which will take effect next month according to CNBC, comes as the president-elect has yet to appoint a new chief scientific adviser for the federal government’s vaccine deployment program, which has so far saw just over 9 million Americans receive the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Representatives for Biden’s transition team did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.
The president-elect has appointed Jeffrey Zients, a business executive and former member of the Bureau of Management and Budget (OMB), to oversee his response to COVID-19, while Kaiser Permanente’s director of health, Bechara Chouchair, is Biden’s vaccine coordinator.
Slaoui had previously indicated that he would resign from his post once two COVID-19 vaccines hit the market, a step taken last month. He told Politico last week that he extended his intention to stay until Biden’s team no longer needed his help.
“I have decided to extend this in order to ensure that the operation continues to unfold as it did during the transition of administration,” Slaoui told the media.
A head of Biden’s transition team also told Politico that Slaoui will stay temporarily “to ensure the continuity of the work already done and to ensure a smooth process.”
General Gustav Perna told the outlet in the same conversation that Biden’s team had not asked him to step down from overseeing the country’s vaccine distribution efforts.
“I signed up, I’m here until my part of the mission is over or I’m told otherwise,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link