WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her one of the few transgender people serving in elected or appointed positions nationwide. She won past confirmation by the Republican-majority Pennsylvania Senate and has emerged as the public face of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said in a statement. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”
A graduate of Harvard and of Tulane Medical School, Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. She’s written in the past on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders and LGBTQ medicine.
Biden and his transition team have already begun negotiating with members of Congress, promoting speedy passage of the president-elect’s $1.9 trillion plan to bring the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 400,000 people in the United States, under control. It seeks to enlist federal emergency personnel to run mass vaccination centers and provide 100 immunization shots in his administration’s first 100 days while using government spending to stimulate the pandemic-hammered economy,
Biden also says that, in one of his first acts as president, he’ll ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days to slow the virus’ spread.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called Levine “a remarkable public servant with the knowledge and experience to help us contain this pandemic, and protect and improve the health and well-being of the American people.”
Levine joins Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, a Latino politician who rose from humble beginnings to serve in Congress and as California’s attorney general.
Businessman Jeff Zients is Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, while Biden picked infectious-disease specialist Rochelle Walensky to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vivek Murthy as surgeon general and Yale epidemiologist Marcella Nunez-Smith to head a working group to ensure fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments.
The government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, will also work closely with the Biden administration.
A transition spokesperson also said Tuesday that Dawn O’Connell will serve as senior counselor for coronavirus response to the health and human services secretary. O’Connell most recently served as director of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and was the senior counselor and deputy chief of staff to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell during the Obama administration.
There’s no such thing as a transgender woman. He is a man posing as a woman. Stop this PC BS.
I’m so happy to see that the Biden administration is checking all the boxes. Now the only boxes left are Polar Bear and space alien and we’ve got ourselves the dream team! What a beautiful country we live in! So proud to raise my children here!!!
Health Secretary?!? It doesn’t look too healthy to me.
Guy thinks he is a woman and took his mother out of a nursing home to protect her from corona while shipping sick patients into nursing homes.
Vomit
A fake woman for a fake president
I thought this is a frum website? ! This creature is a man, not a woman.
So Sleepy Joe just nominated a doctor to run the health department who doesn’t understand basic biology, I’m glad they’re the party of scienc. Oilam hepech ra’isi
בושות. These are the most mentally unhealthy people in the country. Highest suicide rate and depression of any group. And a pediatrician? Who would bring their kids to be checked by it?
DISCUSTING!
Male and Female HE Created Them
Don’t forget this administration is based on Science… Or whatever we need the science to be… In this case let’s recognize people in the way they would like rather than on the straight biological facts.
That’s a dude with hippie hair!
Oh MAN
The comments to this article bring hope .There are still normal people in the world .And a good laugh always helps .
IT is the same person that took her mother out of her nursing home to save her .
Seriously?!??
So a man with severe mental dysphoria and an open sexual pervert to boot is going to be second in command in charger of this country’s ? Wonderful!
Unfortunately this He/She/It is rachmonu litzlan, Jewish
These comments are vile, disgusting, and would make any sane person run away from this kind of religion. You people are disgusting.
Formally known as Yerachmiel Levine
So let me get this straight, this SHE was once a HE? If so what happened to his male part, did they amputate it or what and she now has WHAT??????????
gd bless america, it was a great country.
why couldn’t this person change their name and not make Jews look bad?
When she was a he, he was a football player
Halachically this person is a man. When Moshiach comes he will have problems but in galus we can worry about more important things.
Aman and a women
Obviously halachically, a man.
I would address him in whatever pronoun he preferred to be polite and not raise issues that won’t be solved by being discourteous. Transgenders have a 40% higher suicide rate and this includes people from heimish families. No solution is apparent but being nasty just to make a point about one’s own frumkeit could be devastating to some of these people and I’d rather not contribute to that.
This should help us to feel much more confident to more seriously considering a second opinion when consulting allopathically-trained medical practitioners and their protocols and often highly fallacious advice.
What about these creatures allowed into the israeli army
What ever happened to live and let live? This woman has done nothing to hurt anyone commenting on this wen site. It is her life and she is entitled to live it as she wishes. You don’t like the way she looks, don’t look at her. Her life has certainly not been easy, and she has made many difficult decisions. If HaShem is upset, HaShem can deal with her after 120 years.
The big question is is he/she ajver on Lo Silbas? Is there any Torah isur to become transgender?
I wish you good luck Dr. Levine. I, for one, admire your courage. Pay no attention to hate mongers like those who post on this website.