iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s has included two Indian Americans as his “core advisers” for various issues from the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery to foreign policy and climate change, a media report said.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon General will be advising him on the pandemic, and Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist, will be helping Biden with economic issues, the report said.
Biden has spoken often of his briefings with experts, and Dr Murthy and former head of the Food and Drug Administration David Kessler, have been two of the most prominent medical figures whose counsel Biden has sought during the public health crisis.
We would send in 80- to 90-page documents, take him through the epidemic from epidemiology, therapeutics, vaccines, testing. Staff would join, originally by phone but they soon shifted to Zoom, said Kessler.
Biden said that these two doctors are with him to pore over research and data on the virus and consult with modelers, vaccinologists and other experts so they can provide him with projections about the coming months.
The report added that Biden has signalled that the government’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci will have a prominent role in a Biden administration.
On economy, Biden has cast a wide net for economic advice, soliciting input from several hundred policy experts, along with Chetty, who has produced pathbreaking research on economic mobility and its roots in the last several years.
While some in his inner circle of foreign policy and national security advisers have worked for him through the years, Biden’s aides understand that assumptions that governed Obama policymaking have changed, including the prospects for cooperation with China and the importance of the Middle East.
