The co-chair of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force, former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, is urging President Donald Trump to work with the former vice president’s transition team.
Co-host of “The View” Sara Haines pointed out the Trump administration’s refusal to allow the head of Operation Warp Speed to be in contact with Biden’s transition team.
She noted Biden’s claim “more people may die” if they are unable to work with the White House.
“It’s absolutely essential that we coordinate. What happens during every transition, between administrations, is that the incoming team works closely with the outgoing team,” Murthy said.
He added, “The reason is really two-fold. One is because there’s a lot of information to share that can make the incoming team’s plans even sharper and more effective. The second reason is that many of the people in the outgoing administration are actually career officials who will still be there during the next administration.”
Watch his remarks below:
Biden COVID-19 task force co-chair Dr. @vivek_murthy says “we couldn’t really have asked for a better preliminary result” from Moderna and Pfizer vaccine trials, but says it’s “absolutely essential” Biden’s transition team coordinates with Trump admin. https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/7TKshGgb8I
— The View (@TheView) November 19, 2020
Murthy mentioned the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and noted trial results showed they were around 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
“We couldn’t really have asked for a better preliminary result than this one,” Murthy said.
He explained the Food and Drug Administration needs to review the data to verify the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.
“We’ve got to work on the big challenge of distributing it. What makes a vaccine a vaccination is a whole process of getting it to your community and into your arm and that’s not a simple process,” Murthy said.
He added, “To do this will require the most ambitious vaccination campaign that we have executed in the country’s history.”
During a virtual roundtable with frontline health care workers in Delaware Wednesday, Biden said without a smooth transition, vaccine distribution could be delayed, as IJR previously reported.