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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday asked Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, to serve as his chief medical adviser. Biden told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview that he asked Fauci to serve in the position in addition to staying on in his longtime role as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Manchester, 12/3)

President-elect Joe Biden has selected a close adviser to help lead the nation's response to the coronavirus crisis, tapping a veteran of the Obama administration to serve as America's top doctor as the country suffers from a surging pandemic. Vivek H. Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general, has been asked to reprise the role in an expanded version in the new administration, according to an individual familiar with the decision. (Olorunnipa and Goldstein, 12/3)

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped two close allies to oversee his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to two people familiar with the decision. Transition co-chair and former Obama administration official Jeff Zients is set to serve as the White House’s Covid-19 coordinator and Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general under Obama, will return to that role, but with a broader portfolio that will include acting as the top medical expert and public face of the effort. (Ollstein and Pager, 12/3)

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced Thursday that she has taken herself out of contention to be President-elect Joe Biden’s health secretary. “I am not going to be President-elect Biden’s nominee for HHS secretary,” she said during a press conference on Thursday, declining to elaborate further. “My focus is right here in Rhode Island, as I have said.” (Cancryn and Ollstein, 12/3)

Up soon for President-elect Joe Biden: naming his top health care officials as the coronavirus pandemic rages. It’s hard to imagine more consequential picks. Already two Democratic governors seen as candidates for health and human services secretary have faded from the frame. Rhode Island’s Gina Raimondo told reporters Thursday that she would not be the nominee and is staying to help her state confront a dangerous surge of COVID-19 cases. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/4)

Prominent public health experts are pressuring President-elect Biden and his team to include a doctor or experienced health professional in the Cabinet — and growing increasingly alarmed this week that their warnings will go unheeded. (Facher, 12/3)

President-elect Joe Biden's top picks for the Department of Health & Human Services have both declared gun violence a public health issue in the past, much to the ire of gun rights activists and the National Rifle Association. Vivek Murthy, a former appointee to HHS under the Obama administration, has long accused politicians of being afraid of the NRA and playing politics with gun control efforts, particularly after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School where 26 people, including 20 children-- were killed by a gunman. "Guns are a health care issue," Murthy said, in a resurfaced tweet, which put him at odds with Republicans and NRA officials when he was tapped for the post of U.S. Surgeon General under former President Barack Obama in 2014. (Rambaran, 12/3)

Jeff Zients, the man President-elect Joe Biden has put in charge of his administration’s response to Covid-19, "fell in love with" the culture at Bain & Co. He later founded his own private equity firm, Portfolio Logic. He joined the board of Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. One chief executive on Obama’s Jobs Council remarked that he thought Zients, then a top Obama aide, was a Republican. That was the Jeff Zients people read about on Wikipedia. At least, until a few months ago. (Thompson and Meyer, 12/3)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Who Will Run The Biden Health Effort? 

The quadrennial guessing game about who will get what health job in a new presidential administration has taken on a new urgency in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage. Meanwhile, as two promising vaccine candidates inch closer to approval, the federal government is gearing up for the immense effort of delivering two shots to as many Americans as they can. (12/3)

KHN: KHN On The Air This Week

KHN correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed how Black faith communities provide support in the face of racial unrest and COVID-19 with Newsy on Thursday. And KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed President-elect Joe Biden’s plans for health policy and pandemic response with WBUR’s “Here & Now” on Monday. She also discussed the rollout of COVID vaccines with WDET’s “Detroit Today” on Tuesday. (12/4)