Here's The Advice Biden's Top Health Official Has For Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Thousands of people were dying from COVID-19 every day. Americans were still being ordered to stay-at-home or mask in public. Millions of people were eager to line up for jabs of the newly-released COVID-19 vaccines.

That's the scene the nation's top health official, Xavier Becerra , wants Americans to remember as he readies to leave the office, possibly to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is a vehement critic of the vaccine that government officials - Becerra included - promoted to combat the deadly virus.

"We essentially lost as many Americans in one day from COVID-19 as we'd lose with 10 jumbo jets going down, every day. That's where we were," Becerra said in an interview on Wednesday with the Associated Press.

"Fast forward four years later ... we are in a much better place."

A former California attorney general and congressman, Becerra's unwavering support for the Affordable Care Act helped land him the top job at the DHS, running a 1.7 trillion agency that is responsible for nearly half of the country's health insurance, developing vaccines and inspecting foods on supermarket shelves.