At the end of 2020, Bechara Choucair was named to serve as President-Elect Joe Biden’s White House Vaccine Coordinator on the COVID 19 response team. Bechara Choucair is a U.S. consultant and head of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. He has formerly worked at Trinity Health in Livonia, Michigan, as the Senior Vice President for Safety Net & Communion Health, and was previously assigned to the Chicago Department of Public Health in 2009–2014. He is also a community health officer in the state of Chicago.
He is a board member of the Tobacco-Free Children Movement (CTFK). The Tobacco-Free Children Movement is an American Non-Profit Organization that promotes tobacco consumption reductions across the globe. The New York Times referred to it as “a leading anti-tobacco organization” with the purpose of keeping the world (especially kids) away from Tobacco consumption. Vaping and E-cigarettes are hazardous health mechanisms that can be easily purchased or gotten in society, especially by minors, via online platforms. In a tweet, Matthew L. Myers, CTFK president said, Biden has appointed a highly experienced and competent pioneer in public health and the healthcare sector to the team to manage vaccine allocations. He congratulated Dr. Choucair and says he hope that in the future, they will work together.
In April 2018, Choucair led the $2 million pledge of a non-profit mission-based organization to study the prevention of weapons. He serves as a frontier of the Kaiser Permanente Taskforce for the removal of weapons as part of his policy program. In May 2018, Choucair announced that Kaiser Permanente had a sum of 200 million dollars in investment contributions to fix affordable homes and deter displacement of people. On 25 November 2009, Choucair had been appointed by Major Richard M. Daley as Commissioner of Chicago’s Public Health Department and reaffirmed after his election by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In December 2014, he left the post serving over 2.7 million Chicago residents.
The inclusion of an anti-tobacco activist in the US COVID team sets a glaring light for the agenda of the Anti-Tobacco struggle as this gets them closer to the seat of power and decision making. The Anti-Tobacco activist seeks a world where the act of vaping, sales of e-cigarette is put on hold or at the very least far away from children. After the signing of the Omnibus Spending Bill by the President, the agenda is closer to fruition than ever.
While there is no direct evidence that stopping individuals from tobacco consumption will deter more severe consequences if COVID-19 is accomplished, there is a significant health benefit when people quit. For starters, blood carbon monoxide levels have increased quickly, and cilia respiratory tract function as well as improved immune function a little marginally slower over time. These are likely updates that can benefit people with COVID-19. There is also a second significant dynamics to this: this crisis could inspire some smokers or give them a ‘teachable’ time to make them quit, and this is for those who had to give much thought to it before.
