Here’s All About Dr Vivek Murthy, The Indian American Who May Co-Chair Biden’s Covid Task Force

Indian American Dr. Vivek Murthy may co-chair the coronavirus task force that President-elect Joe Biden had announced in his victory speech.

Image (Twitter/ Vivek Murthy)

New Delhi: Indian American Dr. Vivek Murthy could be heading the Covid Task Force set by the US President-elect Joe Biden. A report by Washington Post said that the task force would be co-chaired by Dr. Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General, and David Kessler, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. During his victory speech in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday night, Biden said, "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" Murthy is no stranger the to American Healthcare system as he was the 19th Surgeon General under the Obama administration in 2014. Here's more about him

• Murthy's family hails from Karnataka's Mandya district and he was born in the UK.
• He was just 37 when he was appointed as the 19th Surgeon General under the Obama administration making him the youngest and the first Indian-origin to be elected as the Surgeon General. It is likely that he will head the Covid Task Force under President Joe Biden, which will be announced on Monday.
• He is the former vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps of the United States.
• Back in 2008, he founded Doctors for America, a non-profit organization to ensure high-quality affordable healthcare for Americans.
• He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in biochemical sciences, while at Harvard he co-founded and led for eight years a non-profit organization VISIONS Worldwide focused on HIV/AIDS education in the U.S. and India.
• In 2011, Murthy was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was nominated as the Surgeon General by President Obama in 2013 and was voted in 2014.
• During the campaign period, Murthy emerged as one of the top advisors of Biden on public health and coronavirus issues. Many believe that he might end up being the Health Secretary in the Biden administration.