Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the White House’s COVID-19 task force should begin working with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team.
“Of course, it would be better if we could start working with them,” Fauci told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the transition process was “really important in a smooth handing over of the information.”
“It’s almost like passing the baton in the race. You don’t want to stop and then give it to somebody — you want to essentially keep going,” Fauci said.
Meanwhile, Biden’s incoming chief-of-staff, Ron Klain, said Sunday that the transition team has “unfortunately” been unable to talk to Fauci and other task force members because they’re forbidden from contacting government officials, pending sign-off from the General Services Administration (GSA).
“We can’t until we get that GSA ascertainment that authorizes us to contact government officials,” he told NBC anchor Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”
“So we can’t have any of those kinds of contacts until we get to that stage of ascertainment.”
Klain said they receive some of the latest information on the pandemic through the scientific community since members of their transition team are leading experts.
But he said that handling the ongoing health crisis requires a “seamless transition.”
“We need to be talking to them as quickly as possible,” said.
