Biden Faces Pandemic Without Key Health Officials in Their Posts

President Joe Biden is fighting his war against the coronavirus shorthanded, as delays in the Senate and by his own White House have left several top U.S. health posts unfilled.

Biden’s team lacks a confirmed Health and Human Services secretary and surgeon general. And the president has yet to name permanent heads for the Food and Drug Administration, which approves vaccines, or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the government’s two large health programs for elderly, disabled and low-income people. Other roles are also unfilled.

The holes threaten to hamper the U.S.’s rebound from the virus and ...