Health Care

Biden team to begin getting COVID-19 briefings

The Biden transition team will begin receiving briefings from federal agencies Wednesday on the COVID-19 response, Biden officials said Wednesday. 

The transition team has requested briefings on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Operation Warp Speed, testing and the supply chain for personal protective equipment. 

“They are moving forward expeditiously,” said Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for Biden.

“Obviously our teams have had a lot of time to work through the core questions that they need to pose and the pieces of information that they most want to have clear visibility into,” she added. 

Agencies were not allowed to coordinate with the Biden team until this week after a key Trump official officially approved the transition process. 

“They believe that they are getting good information and are looking forward to this briefing today and to these additional briefings moving forward,” Bedingfield said. 

Bedingfield specifically mentioned Biden’s COVID-19 task force co-chairs — Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler, and Marcella Nunez-Smith, the associate dean for health equity research, as taking the lead on the briefings.