Becerra takes a back seat while others steer Covid response

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has steered clear of internal policy debates that have raged between HHS’ public health agencies. | Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesAs President Joe Biden’s health secretary, Xavier Becerra runs the sprawling department responsible for delivering on the administration’s vow to end the coronavirus pandemic.

“They brief him,” one person close to the pandemic response team said. “But he’s not a decider on response activities.” “Normally, there’d be an internal process to figure out where we’re all going to land” led by the HHS secretary, said a person familiar with the situation. “Instead, it’s playing out in public.”

And he disputed the notion he’s been removed from major policy decisions, arguing that the pandemic response has been a team effort — with his job being to translate the scientific decisions made by the government’s health experts into concrete initiatives. Within the health department, officials said a team of public health specialists including top CDC, FDA and National Institutes of Health officials have led the daily work on the pandemic response — often working directly with the White House.

“Covid is an all-hands-on-deck issue,” said former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “[Becerra] has a role in all that … but President Biden also wanted people who did nothing other than wake up in the morning and think about Covid.” Still, as fissures emerged over the direction of Biden’s vaccination campaign, some privately questioned why Becerra had not taken a stronger hand in managing relations between the White House and his department’s public health agencies.

Becerra downplayed the wrangling over the booster rollout, chalking it up to an eagerness to give Americans a sense of what to expect. HHS recently grew more involved in that process, people familiar with the negotiations said. But for months, it was unclear to those closely following the drug pricing issue

At least SCIENCE has input again.

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