Workers' Compensation: The COVID-19 Advisory Board and the Future of Workers’ Compensation

Today, the Biden-Harris Transition announced the formation of the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, a team of leading public health experts who will advise President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, and the Transition’s COVID-19 staff. The Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board will be led by co-chairs Dr. David Kessler, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. Dr. Beth Cameron and Dr. Rebecca Katz are serving as advisors to the Transition on COVID-19 and will work closely with the Advisory Board.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a major impact of the nation’s patch work of workers’ compensation programs. In some states, like New Jersey, legislation has been enacted that makes it easier for some workers who have contracted the virus to obtain benefits. A rebuttable presumption of causal relationship is afforded essential workers and their dependents.

Workers’ compensation carriers and employers throughout the United States, for the, most part, have not voluntarily established pandemic preparedness strategies for workplaces. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has sat on the sidelines and has not promulgated Temporary Emergency Standards to help prevent the spread of the deadly illness. Workers’s compensation carriers did not seize the moment to form a national coalition to fill the vacuum of the national void in political leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 Advisory Board goes forward it will establishing prevention, testing, vaccine and long-term medical care strategies for COVID-19. Many aspects of the medical delivery system of established workers’ compensation programs will either be mandatorily upgraded or subsumed by the expanding national COVID-19 program.

“Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts,” said President-elect Biden. “The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations.”

New cases are rising in at least 40 states, with more than 9.3 million total infections and more than 236,000 deaths. President-elect Biden has pledged to bring leadership to the COVID pandemic, which continues to claim thousands of lives each week, by curbing the spread of the disease, providing free treatment to those in need, and elevating the voices of scientists and public health experts. The COVID-19 Advisory Board will help guide the Biden-Harris Transition in planning for the President-elect’s robust federal response. These leading scientists and public health experts will consult with state and local officials to determine the public health and economic steps necessary to get the virus under control, to deliver immediate relief to working families, to address ongoing racial and ethnic disparities, and to reopen our schools and businesses safely and effectively.

The Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board is made up of a diverse and experienced group of doctors and scientists. Members of the Advisory Board have served in previous administrations and have experience engaging with and leading our country’s response to nationwide and worldwide public health crises.

Co-Chairs and Advisory Board Members:

CO-CHAIRS

Dr. David Kessler

David A. Kessler, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF. Dr. Kessler served as FDA Commissioner from 1990 to 1997, appointed by President George H.W. Bush and reappointed by President Bill Clinton.

Dr. Vivek Murthy

Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States from 2014-2017. As the Vice Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he commanded a uniformed service of 6,600 public health officers globally. The officers focused on helping underserved populations, protecting the nation from Ebola and Zika, responding to the Flint water crisis, and natural disasters such as hurricanes.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith

Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Public Health, and Management at Yale University and the Associate Dean for Health Equity Research at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Nunez-Smith’s research focuses on promoting health and healthcare equity for structurally marginalized populations.

MEMBERS

Dr. Luciana Borio

Luciana Borio, MD, is VP, Technical Staff at In-Q-Tel. She is also a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Borio specializes in biodefense, emerging infectious diseases, medical product development, and complex public health emergencies. She served in senior leadership positions at the FDA and National Security Council, including as Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy and Acting Chief Scientist at the FDA, and Director of FDA’s Office of Counterterrorism and Emerging Threats.

Dr. Rick Bright

Rick Bright, PhD, is an American immunologist, virologist, and former public health official. Dr. Bright was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) from 2016 to 2020 and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services. He also previously served as an advisor to the World Health Organization and the United States Department of Defense. His career has focused on the development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics to address emerging infectious diseases and national security threats.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, is an oncologist and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. From January 2009 to January 2011, he served as special advisor for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Since 1997, he has served as chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is the Cyndy and John Fish Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Samuel O. Thier Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Gawande is also the founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for health systems innovation, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. He previously served as a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration.

Dr. Celine Gounder

Celine Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and cares for patients at Bellevue Hospital Center. From 1998 to 2012, Dr. Gounder studied TB and HIV in South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Ethiopia and Brazil. While on faculty at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Gounder was the Director for Delivery for the Gates Foundation-funded Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic. She later served as Assistant Commissioner and Director of the Bureau of Tuberculosis Control at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Dr. Julie Morita

Julie Morita, MD, is Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Morita previously served as the Health Commissioner for the City of Chicago for nearly two decades. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has served on many state, local, and national health committees, including the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Community Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health and the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm previously served as a Science Envoy for Health Security on behalf of the State Department. For 24 years (1975 to 1999), he worked in the Minnesota Department of Health; the last 15 years as state epidemiologist.

Ms. Loyce Pace

Loyce Pace, MPH, is the Executive Director and President of Global Health Council. Over the course of her career, Loyce has championed policies for access to essential medicines and health services worldwide. Ms. Pace has worked with Physicians for Human Rights and Catholic Relief Services, and previously served in leadership positions at the LIVESTRONG Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Robert Rodriguez

Dr. Robert Rodriguez graduated from Harvard Medical School and currently serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine, where he works on the frontline in the emergency department and ICU of two major trauma centers. He has authored over 100 scientific publications and has led national research teams examining a range of topics in medicine, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of frontline providers. In July 2020, Dr. Rodriguez volunteered to help with a critical surge of COVID-19 patients in the ICU in his hometown of Brownsville, Texas.

Dr. Eric Goosby

Eric Goosby, MD, is an internationally recognized expert on infectious diseases and Professor of Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine. During the Clinton Administration, Dr. Goosby was the founding director of the Ryan White CARE Act, the largest federally funded HIV/AIDS program. He went on to become the interim Director of the White House’s Office of National AIDS Policy. In the Obama Administration, Dr. Goosby was appointed Ambassador-at-Large and implemented the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). After serving as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, he was appointed by the UN Secretary General as the Special Envoy for TB.

Related Articles

Halting Workplace COVID-19 Transmission: An Urgent Proposal to Protect American Workers 11/8/20

NJ Announces COVID-19 Worker Protection Complaint Form 11/6/20

NJ Takes Action to Put Workers’ Health Ahead of Covid 10/29/20

Nursing Homes Unprepared for the Winter Coronavirus Surge 10/28/20

Health Emergency Curfew Imposed in Newark NJ 10/27/20

Governor Murphy Signs Executive Order Extending Public Health Emergency in New Jersey 10/25/20

NJ Cannabis Bill Advances Mandating Workers’ Compensation Coverage 10/24/20

Testing Can’t Promise You a Rose Garden. But What Can It Promise? 10/09/20

Is the workers' compensation system ready for the 2019-nCoV [coronavirus] virus? Live Updates

NJ Governor Patrick Murphy Signs Landmark COVID Compensation Law 9/14/20

….