WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has tapped retired Maj. Gen. Paul Friedrichs to lead the White House’s new Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, the White House announced Friday.
Friedrichs will start in the position Aug. 7. He currently serves at the National Security Council, leading global health security and biodefense.
Previously, Friedrichs was a joint staff surgeon at the Pentagon, where he also advised the Defense Department’s Covid-19 task force, the White House said.
The new office will work to prepare and respond to biological threats or pathogens than can lead to a pandemic, including coordinating technology efforts and working with the Department of Health and Human Services on vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 and other threats, according to a White House release. The office will take over tasks previously handled by the Covid-19 response team and will continue to address threats from Covid, polio, respiratory syncytial virus and other potential outbreaks, the White House said. The office will provide Congress with a preparedness report every five years.
The White House Covid response team was to have stopped its work in May, according to a White House administration official, around the time the public health emergency related to the pandemic ended.
“The bold actions and the progress made by the Biden Administration on COVID-19 have positioned us to transition out of the emergency phase of the response, including winding down the COVID-19 Response Team in May,” the official said in a March statement.
