23 March 2021
The Senate voted 57-43 on Tuesday to confirm Vivek Murthy as surgeon general.
Why it matters: His appointment will allow him to reprise a role he previously held. Murthy served as surgeon general under the Obama administration but was dismissed in 2017, a year before the end of his term, by the Trump administration.
The big picture: Murthy is a member of the Biden administration's COVID-19 task force, which is working to combat the spread of the pandemic.
- As surgeon general he has vowed to bring attention to public health issues that have worsened during the pandemic, namely "the opioid epidemic, mental illness and racial and geographic health inequities," according to AP.
- During the Obama administration, Murthy helped lead the U.S. response to the Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks as well as the opioid crisis, CNN reports.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.