US President-Elect Biden To Name COVID-19 Task Force Monday

Joe Biden plans to announce his 12-person coronavirus task force on Monday, two sources with knowledge told CNN.

The task force will reportedly be led by three cochairs: Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler, and Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

The announcement, which will come just days after Biden was projected to win the presidential election, signals how seriously he plans to focus on the coronavirus pandemic from the outset of his transition.

Biden is not expected to announce cabinet nominations for weeks and may wait until control of the Senate is clear, the sources said. Biden has potential people in mind for almost every top position, but the announcement of coronavirus underscores the priority he intends to place on that challenge.

“The restoration of our pursuit towards a more perfect union. I know this is not a perfect country. My God, I’m here. I’m living testimony that the country is not perfect. But we cannot give up on the country. I could not sit idly by and watch this country take backward steps in that pursuit of perfection. And so I am pleased that we can now get back on course,” he told CNN’s, Dana Bash.

Meanwhile, James Clyburn, Democratic member of the house, also revealed that he privately urged Biden to pick to a Black woman as his running mate and discussed the historic nature of Kamala Harris ascending to the second-highest office in the country.

“I’m the father of three daughters. And I have two granddaughters … So I was very, very moved by this. Now, Joe and I talked about it several times when he was trying to make his decision. He said it would be a woman. And I don’t mind saying now, I said to him in private that I thought that a lot of the results would turn on whether that woman is a Black woman. I never said that publicly because I thought, I don’t think you ought to diminish your candidate. When you ever tell a candidate what he must do publicly, that diminishes his standing with the public. So I gave him all my advice to him in private. But I’m very pleased that a Black woman was selected,” Clyburn said.