covid-19 advisory board covid-19 advisory board the covid-19 advisory board was announced in november 2020 by president-elect of the united states joe biden as part of his presidential transition. it was co-chaired by physicians david a. kessler, marcella nunez-smith, and vivek murthy and comprises 13 health experts. the board was then succeeded by the white house covid-19 response team upon biden's presidency in january 2021. covid-19 advisory boardtransition logo for the president-elect of the united states joe bidenagency overviewformednovember 2020dissolvedjanuary 20, 2021superseding agencywhite house covid-19 response teamtypeadvisory boardjurisdictionunited statesagency executivesjoe biden, president of the united stateskamala harris, vice president of the united statesco-chairs, david a. kessler vivek murthy marcella nunez-smithwebsitebuildbackbetter.gov background before naming any white house staff or cabinet appointments, biden announced that he will appoint a covid-19 task force, co-chaired by former surgeon general vivek murthy, former food and drug administration commissioner david kessler and yale university epidemiologist professor marcella nunez-smith. in november 2020, he announced the names of 13 health experts to serve on the covid-19 advisory board. biden pledged a more and larger federal government response to the pandemic than donald trump, akin to president franklin d. roosevelt's new deal during the great depression. this would include increased testing for sars-cov-2, a steady supply of personal protective equipment, distributing a vaccine and securing money from congress for schools and hospitals under the aegis of a national "supply chain commander" who would coordinate the logistics of manufacturing and distributing protective gear and test kits. this would be distributed by a "pandemic testing board", also similar to roosevelt's war production board during world war ii. biden also pledged to invoke the defense production act more aggressively than trump in order to build up supplies, as well as the mobilization of up to 100,000 americans for a "public health jobs corps" of contact tracers to help track and prevent outbreaks. jeffrey zients will work with the advisory board as the incoming white house coronavirus response coordinator (czar). civil servant and political advisor, natalie quillian, will serve as deputy coronavirus response coordinator. succession the board was dissolved on january 20, 2021, after president biden was sworn in. the reason for the dissolution is unknown. the board was then succeeded by the white house covid-19 response team upon biden's presidency. members there were 16 members of the covid-19 advisory board, appointed by president of the united states joe biden. three of the members, david a. kessler, vivek murthy and marcella nunez-smith, served as co-chairs. member role education appointment david a. kessler former commissioner of food and drugsco-chair amherst college (ba)university of chicago (jd)harvard university (md) november 9, 2020 marcella nunez-smith yale school of medicine associate dean for health equity researchco-chair swarthmore college (ba)thomas jefferson university (md) november 9, 2020 vivek murthy former surgeon general of the united statesco-chair harvard university (ba)yale university (md, mba) november 9, 2020 luciana borio former acting chief scientist of the u.s. food and drug administration george washington university (md) november 9, 2020 rick bright former director of the biomedical advanced research and development authority university of kansasauburn university, montgomery (bs)emory university (ms, phd) november 9, 2020 ezekiel emanuel former chief of the department of bioethics at the national institutes of health clinical center amherst college (ba)exeter college, oxford (ms)harvard university (md, phd) november 9, 2020 atul gawande brigham and women's hospital professor of surgery stanford university (ba, bs)balliol college, oxford (ma)harvard university (md, mph) november 9, 2020 céline gounder new york university school of medicine assistant professor princeton university (ba)johns hopkins university (ms)university of washington, seattle (md) november 9, 2020 julie morita executive vice president of the robert wood johnson foundation university of illinois at urbana–champaign (bs)university of illinois college of medicine (md) november 9, 2020 michael osterholm director of the center for infectious disease research and policy luther college (ba)university of minnesota (ms, mph, phd) november 9, 2020 loyce pace executive director and president of the global health council stanford university (bs)johns hopkins university (mph) november 9, 2020 robert rodriguez ucsf school of medicine emergency medicine professor university of notre dame (ba)harvard university (md) november 9, 2020 eric goosby former united states global aids coordinator princeton university (ba)university of california, san francisco (md) november 9, 2020 jane hopkins nurse at harborview medical center and snoqualmie hospital november 28, 2020 jill jim executive director of the navajo department of health university of utah (mph, phd) november 28, 2020 david michaels professor of environmental and occupational health at the milken institute school of public health columbia university (mph, phd) november 28, 2020