Dr. David Kessler emerges to lead Operation Warp Speed, Covid-19 vaccine effort

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has chosen Dr. David Kessler to help lead Operation Warp Speed, the program to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, transition officials announced Friday.

Kessler, who is currently the co-chair of the Biden transition’s coronavirus task force, will help lead Operation Warp Speed in the new role, helming the group that began under President Donald Trump to speed up vaccine development and distribution.

Kessler previously led the FDA under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

“Dr. Kessler became a trusted adviser to the Biden campaign and to President-elect Biden at the beginning of the pandemic, and has probably briefed Biden 50 or 60 times since March,” said Anita Dunn, co-chair of the transition team. “When staff gets asked, ‘What do the doctors say?,’ we know that David Kessler is one of the doctors that President-elect Biden expects us to have consulted.”

He will replace Dr. Moncef Slaoui, a researcher and former drug company executive, who will become a consultant to Operation Warp Speed.  Dr. Kessler’s responsibilities will cover manufacturing, distribution and the safety and efficacy of vaccines and therapeutics.

Slaoui will stay on for another month to “ensure a smooth transition,” a Biden transition official told CNN earlier this week.