Michigan state legislature closes offices due to 'credible threats of violence'

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief on infectious diseases as Massachusetts General who was tapped as Biden's pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said her work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic brought her to this moment and said she is “honored” to serve an administration that will let science lead.

"I've dedicated my career ever since to researching and treating infectious diseases, and to ending the HIV/AIDS crisis for good. Now a new virus is ravaging us. It's striking hardest once again at the most vulnerable: the marginalized, the underserved," she said. "The pain is accelerating. Our defenses have worn down. We are losing life and hope at an alarming rate."

Walensky said she never anticipated taking on the role in government but compared the nation to a dying patient, said it's her calling as a doctor to respond.

"Every doctor knows that when a patient is coding, your plans don't matter. You answer the code. And when the nation is coding, if you are called to serve, serve. You run to take care of people, to stop the bleeding, to stabilize, to give them hope and a fighting chance to come back stronger," she said.

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, who will stay on Biden's COVID-19 equity task force and take on the elevated role of chief medical adviser, appeared virtually at Biden's rollout and expressed support for Biden's initiatives around masks and vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.

"I believe, as you do, that in the fight against this pandemic, we must lead with science and that a key piece of our ongoing work is communicating consistently with the American people," Fauci began.

"Whether it's maintaining social distancing and not congregating indoors, or the 100-day challenge you described on masking or to get as many people vaccinated as possible, these actions are bold, but they are doable and essential to help the public avoid unnecessary risks, to help us save lives, reopen schools and businesses and to eventually beat the pandemic," he continued.

Acknowledging he's dealt with many public health crises in his career, Fauci said the COVID-19 pandemic is "the toughest one we have ever faced as a nation," and repeated Biden's warnings that a dark winter is ahead.

"The road ahead will not be easy. We have got a lot of hard and demanding work to do in the next year, but as we have done during previous crises, I also know we can get through this pandemic together as a nation," Fauci added, thanking Biden for the opportunity to serve in this capacity.

Fauci explained he wasn't able to attend the event in-person because his colleague at the NIAID is receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine Tuesday.

Biden's nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served in the same role in Obama administration, reminded in his remarks that COVID-19 is not the only health crisis devastating families and shortening life spans in America while warning that even with the best policies, the nation must overcome the fear and distrust that many are feeling amid the pandemic.

"In my new expanded role, I will work to bring a health focus to our policies across government so that our schools, our workplaces and our communities can be forces for strengthening our health and wellbeing, but the truth is that the very best policies, and even the best vaccines and treatments, will not heal our nation unless we also overcome the fear, anxiety, anger and distrust that so many Americans are feeling right now," Murthy said.

"So more than anything, I will come to this role as a doctor, one who learned the most important lessons about medicine not in medical school, but from the clinic that my parents opened when they first came to America as immigrants decades ago," he added.

Drawing from personal experience, Murthy went on to say he is "endlessly grateful to serve one of the few countries in the world where the grandson of a poor farmer in India could be asked by the president-elect to look out for the health of an entire nation."

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Biden's nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department who would be the first Latino in the position if confirmed, said the incoming Biden administration will elevate the knowledge of medial professionals and build a country where health care is a right, not a privilege.

"At HHS, tackling pandemics, saving lives, keeping us healthy, should be our calling card. And we won't forget that there is a second "H" in HHS, the human services: the work we do for our children, the seniors and and disabled. They will stand tall in a Biden-Harris HHS," Becerra said.

Becerra also shared a personal story, of his father passing away peacefully at home on New Year's Day, contrasting it to the present moment.

"No one should ever have to die alone in a hospital bed, loved ones forced to stay away. That seems so contrary to the values of a great nation, the values that drew my parents like generations before and after them to come to America," he said.

Becerra led the states' defense of the Affordable Care Act after the Trump administration sued to dismantle the program earlier this year.