Dr. Fauci Accepts Job As Biden's Chief Medical Advisor
Dr. Anthony Fauci joining the Biden Administration is the news we need heading into 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the U.S. and invaluable leader amid the coronavirus epidemic, is officially joining the Biden Administration when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January. Biden announced the news yesterday, stating that he asked Dr. Fauci to become his chief medical adviser. He, of course, said “yes.”
After months of basically being shut out of the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic despite being a literal expert on infectious diseases, how they spread, and how to mitigate them.
“Oh, absolutely. I said yes right on the spot,” Fauci told TODAY when asked if he’d taken the role.
Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, praised Fauci in a tweet.
“There are few public servants in our history who have served as long and as well and with as much distinction at (sic) Dr. Tony Fauci. It will be a great honor to work with him again,” he wrote.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was sidelined by President Donald Trump this year because he wasn’t supportive of Dr. Fauci’s messaging regarding the importance of wearing masks, social distancing, and preventing large-scale gatherings.
“I asked him to stay on the exact same role 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 told CNN.
During his interview with CNN, Biden said he’ll urge Americans to wear a mask during his first 100 days in office to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Biden said he would use his authority to require masks in federal buildings and on interstate transportation.
“Just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction,” he said.
Like Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, Biden also says he’s willing to get the vaccine publicly to show the American people that it’s safe.
Biden said he would be “happy” to get his coronavirus vaccine publicly, as a way to encourage trust in the vaccine. “People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work,” he said on CNN. “Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what the president and vice president do.
