Dear UCSF Community,

This morning, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced the establishment of the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, the first step in their commitment to develop a national strategy aimed at bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control. UCSF applauds the Biden-Harris team’s quick action to assemble a group of top public health advisors on this national and global public health crisis as Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris prepare to assume office on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021.

The Advisory Board will be co-chaired by Vivek Murthy, MD, the surgeon general under former President Barack Obama; Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, associate professor of internal medicine, public health, and management at Yale School of Medicine; and UCSF’s David Kessler, MD, JD, professor of pediatrics and of epidemiology and biostatistics, former dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor, and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Kessler led the FDA under the administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Two other members of the UCSF faculty have also been named to the 13-person Advisory Board: Eric Goosby, MD and Robert M. Rodriguez, MD.

Dr. Goosby, professor of medicine, served as the interim Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy in the Clinton Administration and implemented the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in the Obama administration, among other senior leadership roles.

Dr. Rodriguez, professor of emergency medicine, works in the Emergency Department of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and in...