Dr Atul Gawande Joins US President-Elect Biden’s COVID Task Force
He joins Dr Vivek Murthy, another doctor of Indian origin, on the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.
Indian-American surgeon, author and former CEO of Haven, JPMorgan-Amazon-Berkshire's health effort, Dr Atul Gawande has become the second Indian American doctor to join US President-elect Joe Biden's newly formed COVID task force.
He joins Dr Vivek Murthy, another doctor of Indian origin, in the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, a team of leading public health experts who will advise President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, and the Transition’s COVID-19 staff.
The board will be led by co-chairs Dr David Kessler, Dr Vivek Murthy, and Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith.
The announcement comes even as the US nears 10 million COVID-19 cases and 237,570 deaths.
Dr Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is the Cyndy and John Fish Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Their Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
He has earlier served as a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration.
Dr Gawande has often been sharply critical of the US President Donald Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He has also been pointing out in his tweets that even as the US COVID numbers worsen, President Trump will remain incharge of the response till 20 Jan.
Family Hails from a Small Town in Maharashtra
Dr Gawande's father Atmaram Gawande was born in 1934 in the village of Uti, Maharashtra. He went on graduate from Nagpur Medical College in 1962, before heading to New York to specialise in Urology. Dr Gawande's mother is also a doctor. His mother Sushila, a paediatrician, had moved to the US from Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Dr Atul Gawande and his sister were brought up in Ohio.
His parents did not forget their roots in India. In Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, they established the Gopika Sitaram Gawande College. The college serves 2,000 rural students.
Dr Atul Gawande is a columnist for The New Yorker and an award winning author of several books including Being Mortal, Medicine and What Matters in the End.
(The article was first published on FIT.)
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