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The
report comes after Moncef Slaoui, the program's chief adviser,
resigned at the request of the incoming Biden team, in a plan
that would see him stay in the role for a month to help with the
transition.
Kessler, who led the FDA after being appointed by President
George H.W. Bush to the top position in 1990 and served till
1997, will share top responsibilities for the initiative with
Gustave Perna, the NYT report said.
The transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters
request for comment.
Kessler's move comes as the program is at a critical juncture.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration had aimed to give
vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of 2020, but
fell far short of that target.
Only 11.1 million coronavirus shots had been administered as of
Thursday out of more than 30 million doses distributed to
states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey
and Catherine Evans)
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