Top Biden Coronavirus Adviser Announces Last Day in Job

Senior advisor to the president’s COVID-19 response team Andy Slavitt told reporters that Wednesday would be his last day on the job, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

Slavitt was appointed to the temporary position in January and had been expected to leave sometime this month, as special government employee appointments are not allowed to work more than 130 days.

“Today is my last briefing and tomorrow is my last day in the White House,” Slavitt said at a coronavirus response briefing on Tuesday. “It has been an honor to serve as part of the administration committed to working day and night until Americans are able to feel safe again from this pandemic.”

At the briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Slavitt, who was the acting chief of Medicare and Medicaid during the Obama administration, that “You are a class act and we will miss you greatly.”

Slavitt emphasized in his last appearance at a briefing that it was crucial for the American people to keep up the fight against the coronavirus.

“Even as so much of what we cherished is returning, we cannot let our progress be a reason for taking our foot off the pedal,” he said. “Threats remain. We must push harder so more Americans can return to normal life with the peace of mind that comes with being vaccinated.”

Last week Slavitt touted in an interview on MSNBC what he considered the great strides that has been made since January in battling against the pandemic.

“We’re not done by any means, but we have all lived through what’s perhaps may be one of the most spectacular transformations of a country and a country’s well-being in as short a period of time as from the time President Biden took office, when COVID was killing thousands of people a day, we couldn’t produce vaccines and people were very scared and frustrated, to today, where we really have a much more manageable situation,” Slavitt said.