My people in Tamil Nadu are proud: Doctor, part of Biden's COVID-19 taskforce
New Delhi, Nov 11: Indian-origin epidemiologist Dr Celine Gounder, who has Tamil roots, shared screenshots of Indian news articles about her appointment to Joe Biden's COVID-19 taskforce and said, "My people in Tamil Nadu, India are very proud."
Her father moved to the US from Tamil Nadu in the 1960s. Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and DMK chief M K Stalin congratulated her.
Celine, who is an assistant professor in the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, was named a member of the COVID-19 Advisory Board of American President-elect Joe Biden.
My people in Tamil Nadu, India are very proud: pic.twitter.com/xtFzCFNrdM
— Céline Gounder, MD, ScM, FIDSA (@celinegounder) November 10, 2020
Congratulating both Celine and Karnataka origin Vivek Murthy, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami wrote, "I'm extremely happy that @celinegounder & @vivek_murthy have been appointed in the National Pandemic Taskforce of US to combat #COVID19. Both of them have made India proud and I'm very glad to learn that Dr Celine Gounder has a Tamil heritage. My best wishes to both of them."
DMK's leader MK Stalin also congratulated writing, "Glad to hear about the appointment of Celine Gounder to the President-elect Joe Biden's National Pandemic Taskforce to combat Covid-19. Happy to hear about the appointment of a woman of Tamil origin to this crucial task force."
Celine is a practicing HIV/infectious diseases specialist and internist, epidemiologist, journalist and filmmaker, as per her Linkedin page.
She received her BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, her Master of Science in Epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Washington.
Celine was an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, and a post-doctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University.She was elected a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2016.
Another south Indian who made it to the task force is Vivek Murthy, the former US surgeon general. His family was originally from Karnataka. This marks his return to health policy after he was asked to resign by the Trump administration in 2017.