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President Biden has chosen Dr. Paul Friedrichs, a military combat surgeon and retired Air Force major general who helped lead the Covid-19 response at the Pentagon, to lead a new White House office created by Congress to prepare for and manage future biological threats.
The White House announced the appointment on Friday and said it would take effect Aug. 7. It will then fall to Dr. Friedrichs to set up the new office, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, though the administration has christened it with a shorter Washington acronym: OPPR.
The appointment comes after a long search for a director that ended where it began — at the White House, where Dr. Friedrichs recently joined the staff of the National Security Council as senior director for global health security and biodefense. Prior to that, he served as the Joint Chiefs of Staff Surgeon at the Pentagon, providing medical advice to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His intended selection was reported last week by the Washington Post.
Why it matters: Future health threats loom.
The coronavirus pandemic has often been described as the worst public health crisis in a century. But experts agree that given current migration patterns and the way humans intersect with animal life, it won’t be a century — and possibly not even a decade — before the next pandemic arrives.
The era of the Covid “tsars” is over. Mr. Biden’s first White House coronavirus response coordinator, Jeffrey D. Zients, is now the White House Chief of Staff. The second coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, resumed his post as dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
Covid-19 has made it clear that a biological health threat does not respect borders – including the borders that divide federal agencies. Dr. Friedrichs’ appointment signals a more permanent and coordinated effort to prepare for and respond to pandemics — an effort that will last beyond the Biden administration and be centralized within the White House.
Background: Dr. Friedrichs served decades in the Air Force.
In a February speech, Dr. Friedrichs, who retired from the military in June, reflected on his 37-year career in the Air Force and shared a bit about himself. Her father served in the navy at the end of World War II and her mother was a Hungarian freedom fighter whose parents were killed by the Russians. His wife was a military doctor when they met.
He also reflected on the military’s role in the fight against Covid-19, an effort that included helping to develop and distribute vaccines and providing medical support to struggling hospitals. “The military health system has become the punchline that has stepped in to help our civilian partners as we collectively struggled through this pandemic,” he said.
And after: The work will focus on preparation.
Dr. Friedrich’s new position gives him the authority to oversee national biosecurity preparedness. He will have to work on the development of new generation vaccines, ensure an adequate supply in the national strategic stock and intensify surveillance to monitor new biological threats.
He will also need to work with Congress to secure funding for preparedness efforts. Lawmakers created the new White House office as part of a government spending package passed late last year.
“When President Biden took office, we inherited a once-in-a-generation public health and economic crisis, but no plan to get out of it,” Zients said in a statement. “This office – under the strong and capable leadership of Major General Friedrichs – will lead the charge to ensure this never happens again.”
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