Indian-American physician named co-chair of President-elect Biden's coronavirus task-force
Washington: Indian-American physician Dr. Vivek Murthy on Monday was named one of the three co-chairs of the COVID-19 task-force that will guide President-elect Joe Biden on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 236,000 lives in the country.
Dr. Murthy, 43, a former US Surgeon General, along with two other co-chairs -- Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith -- would lead a team of leading public health experts who will advise Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the deadly virus.
The US is currently the world's worst-hit nation from the pandemic.
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, Biden said.
New cases are rising in at least 40 states, with more than 9.3 million total infections and more than 236,000 deaths, a media release announcing the COVID-19 Advisory Board said.
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, he said.
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 Biden-Harris transition team said.
The Biden-Harris transition team launched its official website on Sunday. It is called BuildBackBetter.com, and it lists COVID-19 as the main priority in addition to economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change.
Kessler is a former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner from 1990 to 1997.
Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the US from 2014-2017. Nunez-Smith 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.
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, it said.
The COVID-19 Advisory Board will help guide the Biden-Harris Transition in planning for the President-elect's robust federal response, the media release said.
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.
Among members of the board include Indian-American Atul Gawande, who previously served as a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration.
Other members of the Advisory Board are Luciana Borio, Rick Bright; Ezekiel Emanuel; Celine Gounder; Julie Morita; Michael Osterholm; Loyce Pace; Robert Rodriguez; and Eric Goosby.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
