Who is Vivek Murthy? Joe Biden to name fired surgeon general who worked for Barack Obama head of Covid-19 taskforce
President-elect Joe Biden seems like he's all set to save America from the Covid-19 pandemic. The 77-year old President-elect has selected the heads of his Covid-19 taskforce, including the surgeon general who was fired soon after President Trump took office. Vivek Murthy, who was America's top doctor when Biden was serving as the Vice President under Barack Obama's presidency, will be named as one of the co-chairs along with former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, November 8.
On Saturday, November 7, CNN reported that they would be joined by Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, citing sources. The rest of the taskforce which Biden referred to in his victory speech on Saturday, will be formally confirmed Monday, November 9. “The work starts right away. People want the country to move forward,” Bedingfield said, adding that the election result proved that “people are hungry for change," Bedingfield said. “He’s going to begin transition work in earnest this week. He’ll be making calls, he’ll be making announcements to the American people, on how he’s going to make good on these campaign promises,” she added.
Born on July 10, 1977, Vivek Hallegere Murthy is a physician and former vice officer in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the nineteenth Surgeon General of the United States. Murthy was born in Huddersfield, England to immigrants from Karnataka, India. In the year, 1978, his family crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland, where his father served as a District Medical Officer. In 1980, his family moved to Miami, Florida, when he was just 3-years-old, where his parents established their medical practice. Murthy has completed his education from Miami as he has graduated as valedictorian from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in 1994. Later, he went to Harvard University, where he graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Arts in biochemical sciences. In 2003, he got his MD degree from Yale College of Medicine, along with an MBA degree from Yale School of Management. Murthy founded the nonprofit Doctors for America in 2008. He was the first surgeon general of Indian origin, and while serving in the White House, he was the youngest active duty flag officer in federal uniformed service
In 2011, he was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, to work on the U.S. Presidential Advisory Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Later, in December 2014, he got appointed as surgeon general after getting 51–43 Senate vote,
On April 21, 2017, Murthy was fired from the White House by President Donald Trump. His deputy surgeon general, Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, was named the acting surgeon general. Subsequently, the newly-appointed surgeon general was Jerome Adams.