Know More About Dr Ashish Jha, US President Biden's New Indian-Origin COVID Response Coordinator

Indian-American public health expert Dr Ashish Jha will be taking over as US President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Response Coordinator from April onwards, the White House officially stated on March 17.

Biden's coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy Natalie Quillian are set to step down from the administration next month, it also added.

The US President's statement conforming Dr Jha's appointment lauded him as one of the top public health experts in the US and "a well-known figure to many Americans from his wise and calming public presence."

Who Is Dr Ashish Jha?

The Bihar-born 51-year-old Jha replaced Jeff Zients, who was the management consultant and the former top economic adviser to President Barack Obama. Jha was officially appointed to guide the School of Public Health in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID pandemic ravaged the United States, after which he started his life as the dean in September 2020.

Jha then joined the University after directing the Harvard Global Health Institute and orienting at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

Born in Pursaulia, Bihar, in 1970, the 51-year-old had moved to Canada in 1979 and then shifted to the United States in 1983.

After securing a bachelor's degree in economics from the reputed Columbia University in 1992 and also an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1997, Jha trained in internal medicine at San Francisco's the University of California.

He then also concluded his general medicine fellowship at Harvard Medical School's Brigham & Women's Hospital and obtained his master of public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2004.

Leading The Fight Against COVID

In the official White House release, President Biden praised Dr Ashish Jha and called him the "perfect person for the job," reported India Today.

"I appreciate both Jeff and Dr Jha for working closely to ensure a smooth transition, and I look forward to continued progress in the months ahead," he added.

Furthermore, Biden also added that the US is currently leading the global effort in the fight against the novel virus and is delivering more free vaccines to other nations than every other nation.

The United States Of America (USA) is the worst-hit country due to the pandemic. According to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine data, the nation has clocked in more than 968,300 deaths and over 79,631,000 confirmed COVID cases as well.

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