Projected President-elect Joe Biden told CNN in an interview on Thursday that he has asked top US infectious disease specialist Dr. Anthony Fauci to join his administration as chief medical adviser and be a part of the coronavirus response team.
"I asked him to stay on the exact same role he's had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the Covid team," Biden told CNN's Jack Tapper.
Biden noted that Ron Klain, who he intends to make his chief of staff if official election results confirm his election victory, knew Fauci well and talks to him "all the time."
Besides, the projected president-elect, revealed that he will be "happy to" receive a coronavirus vaccine injected as soon as Fauci confirms that it is safe.
"That's the moment in which I will stand before the public" and get the vaccine, Biden said. "People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what the president and vice president do."
Revealing plans for the first 100 days following his projected inauguration, Biden told Tapper that he will ask Americans to wear masks for this period of time, expressing confidence that "we'll see a significant reduction" in coronavirus cases.
Fauci is known to have a tense relations with Trump, as the two have delivered contradictory recommendations regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
Shortly after the global outbreak began raging in the United States, Fauci joined Trump's coronavirus response team as one of its leading members.