WASHINGTON — Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler will serve as chief science officer of the COVID-19 response under the Biden administration.
Kessler will help lead Operation Warp Speed, the joint Pentagon and Department of Health and Human Services project to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and other medicines, the Biden transition team announced Friday.
Kesser led the FDA in the 1990s under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. During his tenure, he pushed for greater regulation of the tobacco industry and championed consumer-friendly nutritional labels.
In the time since, Kessler has worked as a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and as the dean of the medical schools at Yale and UCSF. He chaired the board of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group focused on nutrition and FDA, and authored books on nutrition, the tobacco industry and mental health.
That’s a shift in expertise for the drug development arm of Operation Warp Speed, formerly led by pharmaceutical executive Moncef Slaoui.
Slaoui faced criticism for not divesting his financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry when he took the helm of the multibillion-dollar enterprise. Slaoui announced earlier this week that he had been asked to resign by the Biden team, and that his contract would end on Feb. 12.
Kessler’s appointment comes amid a troubled first few weeks for the national vaccination effort under the Trump administration.
The incoming Biden administration has promised to oversee the administration of 100 million shots within its first 100 days by executing a national plan. The Trump administration said the rollout would vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the year, but the country has seen just 11 million doses administered. President-elect Joe Biden announced in a national address Thursday night that he would announce his national vaccination plan on Friday.
Gen. Gustave Perna, who oversees the vaccine distribution side for Operation Warp Speed, has said he will remain in that position for as long as he is asked to stay.
“We are in a race against time, and we need a comprehensive strategy to quickly contain this virus,” Biden said in a statement announcing the personnel moves.
Other officials the Biden transition announced Friday include former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt, who will be a senior adviser to the COVID response coordinator.
Additional team members include Amy Chang, who will be policy adviser; Rosa Po, the incoming COVID Response Team deputy chief of staff; Vidur Sharma, incoming policy adviser for testing; Ben Wakana, deputy director of strategic communications and engagement; B. Cameron Webb, senior policy adviser for COVID-19 equity; and Abbe Gluck, special counsel.
