The White House coronavirus task force will be closed around Commemoration Day

Officials said that the task force might never have been officially announced and there was no clear replacement group ready to start afterwards, the Times reported. A senior second administration official told CNN, “This does not mean doctors are removed from the equation or expelled.”

The second senior administration official told CNN that the White House shifted its focus to reopening the economy “and getting Americans back to work.” The shift will take place over the next few weeks and doctors like Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been a key figure in the President’s task force briefing with journalists, will still play an “important advisory role” in the process. , said the second senior administration official.

“Members of the task force will continue to provide input, even though the group will not meet regularly because the focus changes towards vaccines, therapy, testing, and finally reopening the economy,” said a senior second administration official. “Keep in mind that the task force is always a temporary arrangement. Health experts will continue to provide input even though they don’t meet together every day.”

Pence confirmed to reporters on Tuesday that the White House was in talks about when the time was right to disperse the task force. The comments were made in a small briefing with reporters for which CNN was not invited. The vice president’s office then gave a partial transcript of the comments.

“We are in talks about that and about the right time for the task force to complete its work and for ongoing efforts to take place at the agent-per-agent level,” Pence said, adding that the White House had begun to discuss “transition plans with FEMA . “

Pence added that the White House “began to look at the Commemoration day window, a window early in June as a time when we could begin the transition” away from the task force.

This is an extraordinary story and will be updated.