AP: Next for Biden: Naming a health care team as pandemic rages
“Up soon for President-elect Joe Biden: naming his top health care officials as the coronavirus pandemic rages. It’s hard to imagine more consequential picks. … Alongside his health secretary, Biden is expected to name a top-level White House adviser to coordinate the government’s extensive coronavirus response. … Keeping the focus on the virus, Biden is also said to be close to nominating a commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration and a director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/3).

Washington Post: Biden transition advisers emerge as top contenders to run covid-19 response
“As President-elect Joe Biden makes fighting the raging coronavirus his most urgent mission when he takes office next month, two figures already playing central roles in his transition are emerging as the most likely officials to preside over the new White House’s pandemic response. One contender for Biden’s coronavirus coordinator, envisioned as a powerful role in setting the agenda and orchestrating the work of federal agencies, is Jeff Zients, a co-chairman of the Biden transition team who led the Obama administration’s National Economic Council. Another is Vivek H. Murthy, a co-chair of the transition’s covid-19 advisory board and a former U.S. surgeon general. … [H]aving announced his national security team last week and his economic team Tuesday, pressure is intensifying to reveal his health-care leadership, and several individuals said decisions could be announced as early as next week…” (Goldstein/Olorunnipa, 12/2).