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President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is phasing out the Trump administration program known as Operation Warp Speed and has asked Dr. David Kessler – a former head of the Food and Drug Administration – to oversee the efforts aimed at accelerating the development, manufacture and distribution of coronavirus vaccines, Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday.
“OWS is the name of the Trump team for their program,” Ms. Psaki written on twitter, using the initials of the program. “We are setting up a new structure, which will have a different name from OWS. Many officials will be critical to our response, but there is an urgent need to address the failures of the Trump team’s approach to vaccine distribution.
The announcement came as Operation Warp Speed faced new fury after it was indicated that more doses from a stockpile would be sent to the States. But federal officials have since clarified that the doses actually come from a slice saved for the second doses.
Ms Psaki added that Biden Covid’s response would be executed from the White House. Dr Bechara Choucair, a former Chicago health department commissioner, “will oversee vaccination efforts,” Ms Psaki said, including working to fulfill Mr Biden’s pledge to receive “100 million vaccines against Covid in the arms of the American people “by his 100th day in office.
Dr Kessler, a pediatrician and lawyer who headed the Food and Drug Administration during the presidencies of George Bush and Bill Clinton, has been a key adviser to Mr Biden on Covid-19 policy and is co-chair of the Covid transition team -19 working group. He will work alongside Mr Biden’s choice for Health Secretary Xavier Becerra with the title of “Scientific Director of Covid Response”.
Its role will be to “focus on maximizing the current vaccine supply and working with manufacturers to help bring more vaccines online as quickly as possible.” Ms. Psaki said.
He will effectively replace Dr Moncef Slaoui, researcher and former head of a pharmaceutical company, who will become a consultant for Operation Warp Speed. Dr Kessler will share key responsibilities for the initiative with Gen. Gustav F. Perna, who will continue as chief operating officer, according to a Biden transition spokesperson.
“Dr. Kessler became a trusted advisor to the Biden campaign and President-elect Biden at the start of the pandemic, and has probably briefed Biden 50 or 60 times since March, ”said Anita Dunn, transition team co-chair. “When you ask staff, ‘What are the doctors saying? “We know David Kessler is one of the doctors President-elect Biden expects us to see.”
Although Operation Warp Speed is widely credited with making possible the development of two highly effective coronavirus vaccines in record time, it has been much less successful in delivering the vaccines to the public – a complex task it shares. with numerous federal, state and local authorities. .
The Trump administration had promised to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020, but as of Thursday, just over 11 million vaccines had been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr Kessler is close to Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease physician, who has become the main government voice on the pandemic. The two worked closely to accelerate the development and approval of drugs that changed the course of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s.
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