Adam P. Frankel

When your younger sister is a total genius badass washingtonpost.com/politics/… From our notebook
New this a.m.: President Biden has tapped Stephanie Psaki to be his global health security coordinator.
Psaki, a longtime global heath expert who serves on the National Security Council, will help organize the government’s response when an emerging health threat is detected overseas and elevated as a White House priority, our colleague Dan Diamond scooped. The role was mandated by Congress, with lawmakers saying the government’s stumbles in responding to covid in early 2020 revealed the need for a designated coordinator.
Psaki, who joined the federal health department’s global affairs office in March 2021 and moved to the White House in 2022, will remain in her current role as NSC’s deputy senior director for global health security and biodefense. Shankar Sundaram, who has expertise in emerging technologies and biodefense, was tapped to be senior director of the NSC global health security team in November 2023.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who crafted the bipartisan Global Health Security Act that created the coordinator role, praised the choice of Psaki. The position “will help provide clear, focused, and accountable leadership for the federal government’s pandemic preparedness, prevention, and response efforts,” Connolly said in a statement.

The Biden team has said pandemic preparedness is a priority. In addition to Psaki’s role, the White House last year stood up a new pandemic preparedness office, led by retired Maj. Gen Paul Friedrichs, to help organize efforts to combat virus threats. Democrats have contrasted those moves with the Trump administration’s decision to wind down the NSC’s pandemic office in 2018 — a move that left “the country less prepared for pandemics like covid-19,” Beth Cameron, the office’s former head, wrote in 2020 as covid menaced the globe.