President-elect Joe Biden says he is keeping Dr Anthony Fauci on as a chief medical adviser and a member of his COVID-19 advisory team.
Biden made the comments Thursday during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. He said he spoke with Fauci earlier in the day about the need to instill confidence in any coronavirus vaccine and the fact that "you don't have to close down the economy" to combat the virus.
Biden says he'd be "happy" to get a vaccine in public to prove its safety.
In October, Fauci told The Washington Post that the US needs to change to make an "abrupt change" in public health practices and behaviours, revealing that the frequency of the COVID task force's meeting has come down.
US disease expert sorry for remarks on UK vaccine
Dr Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert, has apologised after his remarks created a bit of a stir here for implying that the UK's regulator had "rushed" the process when it became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech for rollout.
In an interview with the BBC, Fauci stressed that his remarks had been misconstrued as criticism of the UK's vaccine approval process, in which he has a great deal of confidence. "I have a great deal of confidence in what the UK does both scientifically and from a regulator standpoint," he said. On Wednesday, when UK announced its decision, Fauci told Fox News that the UK did not review the vaccine "as carefully" as US health regulators but admitted that the US would quickly also be in a position to approve a vaccine.
