The news
President Biden has Dr. Paul Friedrichs, a military combat surgeon and retired Air Force major general who helped lead the Pentagon’s Covid-19 response, was selected to head a new White House office created by Congress to prepare for and contain future biological threats.
The White House said it would announce the nomination on Friday and it would take effect on August 7. Then it’s up to Dr. Friedrichs to create the new office, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, though the administration has christened it with a shorter Washington abbreviation: OPPR
The appointment comes after a lengthy search for a director that ended where it began: in the White House, where Dr. Friedrichs recently joined the staff of the National Security Council as senior director for global health security and biological defense. Prior to that, he was a surgeon on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon and provided medical advice to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His planned roster was reported last week by The Washington Post.
Why it matters: Future health threats loom.
The coronavirus pandemic is often described as the worst public health crisis in a century. But experts agree that given current migration patterns and how humans interact with wildlife, it won’t be a century — maybe even a decade — before the next pandemic breaks out.
The era of Covid “tsars” is over. The First White House Response Coordinator to Biden’s coronavirus, Jeffrey D. Zients, is now White House Chief of Staff. The second coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, has returned to his position as dean of Brown University School of Public Health. Mr. Zients praised Dr. Friedrichs for his work on the pandemic and said he would “lead the charge to make sure this never happens again.”
Covid-19 made it clear that a biological health threat respects no boundaries — including those that divide federal agencies. The appointment of Dr. Friedrichs points to a more permanent and coordinated effort to prepare for and respond to pandemics — an effort that will continue after the Biden administration and will be centralized in the White House.
Background: Dr. Friedrichs served in the Air Force for decades.
In a speech in February, Dr. Friedrichs reflected on his 37-year career in the Air Force and shared a little about himself. His father served in the Navy at the end of World War II and his mother was a Hungarian freedom fighter whose parents were killed by the Russians. His wife was an army medic when they met.
He also reflected on the military’s role in the fight against Covid-19, an effort that included helping develop and distribute vaccines and providing medical support to troubled hospitals. “The military health system became the pinch-hitter that stepped in to help our civilian partners as we collectively struggled to get through that pandemic,” he said.
What’s next: The job will focus on preparedness.
The new position of Dr. Friedrich gives him the authority to oversee domestic biosecurity preparedness. He will need to work to develop next-generation vaccines, ensure adequate supplies in the Strategic National Stockpile and ramp up surveillance to check for emerging biological threats. He will also need to work with Congress to secure funding for preparedness efforts.
