Biden picks transgender doctor Rachel Levine for assistant health secretary

Joe Biden has announced his nomination for assistant health secretary, who would become the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the US Senate.

The president-elect tapped Rachel Levine, a paediatrician by training who has spent the last year as the public face of Pennsylvania’s Covid-19 response, to serve as assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

"Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic," Mr Biden said in a statement from his transition team. "She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration's health efforts."

Dr Levine, 62, is currently secretary of health for the state of Pennsylvania and a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine.

A graduate of Harvard and of Tulane Medical School, Dr Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. She has written in the past on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders and LGBTQ medicine.

She was previously married and has two children.

“With very few exceptions, my being transgender is not an issue,” she once told the Washington Post in an interview.

In her new post, Dr Levine would serve with Mr Biden’s pick for health secretary, Xavier Becerra, and coronavirus response coordinator, Jeff Zients.

Cabinet-level and senior positions like this require confirmation by the Senate, which will be in the Democrats' hands after Mr Biden and Kamala Harris, Vice President-Elect, are sworn in on Wednesday

Mr Biden inherits multiple crises upon taking office, the greatest being the coronavirus that has now killed almost 400,000 people in the US.

He has said he wants to see 100 million people in America vaccinated during his first 100 days as president and will seek billions of dollars from Congress to fund mass vaccination centres.