EMS Today Speaker Appointed to Serve on COVID-19 Task Force

Dr. Michael Osterholm
Dr. Michael Osterholm (Photo/Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy)

Dr. Michael Osterholm, one of the nation’s most recognized infection control experts and an ex-officio member of the Eagles, has been appointed to President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force.

Osterholm is an epidemiologist, regents professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Osterholm will be a speaker at EMS Today.

The co-chairs of the task force are former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, former Food Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a Yale University professor and researcher.

Rick Bright, a vaccine expert and former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was also appointed by Biden. Bright filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was reassigned to a lesser job because he resisted pressure to allow use of hydroxychloroquine.

Other members include Luciana Borio, a biodefense specialist; Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and bioethics chair at the National Institutes of Health; Dr. Atul Gawande, a Clinton administration health advisor and surgery expert; Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert who has studied HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis; Dr. Julie Morita, a pediatric and immunization specialist; Loyce Pace, a global health specialist; Dr. Robert Rodriguez, an emergency medicine expert who has researched mental health of COVID-19 responders; and Dr. Eric Goosby, an infectious disease expert who has worked in AIDS/HIV.

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