On December 4, 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced that Fauci would, in addition to remaining in his role as director of the NIAID, serve as Chief Medical Advisor to the President in the Biden administration.
On January 23, 2021, Fauci was quoted saying that letting the science speak on the pandemic got him "into a little bit of trouble" and got "push-back from people in the White House, including the president. Fauci was also reportedly blocked from appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show for some time because the Trump administration "didn't like the way you [Maddow] handle things and they didn't want me on there." In contrast to the previous administration, Fauci admitted that he experienced a "liberating feeling" in being able to speak freely about the science without interference from the Biden administration.
Jeffrey Dunston Zients (born November 12, 1966) is an American business executive and government official. From February 2014 to January 2017, he was the director of the National Economic Council. Zients was also acting director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2010 and 2013. Before entering government, Zients was an executive at firms including The Advisory Board Company and CEB.
As of December 2020, Zients was on leave from his position as chief executive officer of Cranemere, an investment firm. He was a member of Facebook's board of directors from 2018 to 2020. In December 2020, the Biden transition announced that Zients will serve as both Counselor to the President and Coordinator of the COVID-19 response in the Biden administration.
Dr. Miguel Angel Cardona (born July 11, 1975) is an American educator who has served as the Connecticut commissioner of education since 2019. President Joe Biden nominated Cardona to serve as United States Secretary of Education in his cabinet.
A native of Meriden, Connecticut, Cardona began his career as a fourth-grade teacher at the Putnam Elementary School. In 2003, at the age of 27, he was named principal of Hanover School, also in Meriden, making him the youngest principal in the state.
Thomas James Vilsack ( born December 13, 1950) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 30th United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2009 until 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 40th governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007.
On November 30, 2006, he formally launched his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2008 election, but ended his bid on February 23, 2007. Then-President-elect Barack Obama announced Vilsack's selection to be Secretary of Agriculture on December 17, 2008. His nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on January 20, 2009. Until his January 13, 2017 resignation one week prior to the end of Obama's second term as President, he had been the only member of the U.S. Cabinet who had served since the day Obama originally took office.
On July 19, 2016, The Washington Post reported that Vilsack was on Hillary Clinton's two-person shortlist to be her running mate for that year's presidential election. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine was ultimately selected. On December 10, 2020, then-President-elect Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate Vilsack to once again serve as the secretary of agriculture in the incoming Biden administration.
Vivek Hallegere Murthy (Kannada: born July 10, 1977) is an American physician and former vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 19th surgeon general of the United States from 2014 to 2017. Murthy, who founded the nonprofit Doctors for America in 2008, was the first surgeon general of Indian descent and was the youngest active duty flag officer in federal uniformed service while serving in office.
On November 9, 2020, President Joe Biden announced that Murthy would co-chair his COVID-19 Advisory Board, alongside former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David A. Kessler and Yale public health professor Marcella Nunez-Smith. On December 3, Politico reported that Murthy would return to the role of surgeon general in the Biden administration. On December 7, Biden announced Murthy would be his nominee for surgeon general.
