Indian-American physician Dr Vivek Murthy is widely expected to co-chair the coronavirus task force to be put in place by US President-elect Joe Biden.
In his victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday night, Biden had announced the task force, saying, “On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as Transition Advisors to help take the Biden-Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint that starts on January 20th, 2021".
The 43-year-old hails Murthy from Karnataka and was appointed America’s 19th Surgeon General by then president Barack Obama in 2014 – the youngest ever to hold the office at the age of 37. He was subsequently asked to step down by the Trump administration.
The Washington Post has reported that the task force would be co-chaired by Dr Murthy and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner.
Dr Murthy has been one of Biden’s top public health and coronavirus advisors during his campaign.
The US is currently the world's worst-hit nation by COVID-19 with over 9,849,000 cases and more than 237,000 deaths as per Johns Hopkins University.