CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will step down : NPR

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the top of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, is stepping down on the finish of June. In a press release, President Biden mentioned that Walensky, quote, “leaves CDC a stronger establishment, higher positioned to confront well being threats and defend Individuals.” NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin is right here to inform us extra in regards to the announcement and Walensky’s time on the CDC. Hey.

SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hello, Juana.

SUMMERS: So, Selena, was this a shock?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: I did hear from staffers at CDC and others within the public well being world immediately who had been shocked. Walensky was simply yesterday testifying in entrance of Congress, and there was no inkling that this was going to drop. However from a political perspective, there is a sense that it was type of possibly time for her to step apart. And one clue was that the information truly broke when the White Home commented on her departure. CDC’s electronic mail saying she would step down got here an hour later.

SUMMERS: OK. So remind us, if you happen to can, who she is and what her background was earlier than she was the top of the CDC.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She is a doctor with a background in HIV. When President Biden appointed her, she was working the infectious illness division at Massachusetts Common Hospital, and he or she was a professor of medication at Harvard. I spoke to a number of individuals who knew her properly when the appointment was introduced who had been simply over the moon. I imply, she was generally known as a charismatic, an extremely sensible chief. However this was a tricky task. As we speak I spoke with Drew Altman. He is president and CEO of KFF, and he says it is necessary to recollect this context.

DREW ALTMAN: She led the CDC at maybe essentially the most difficult time in its historical past, in the midst of an absolute disaster, after a time period throughout the Trump administration, when it had been politicized.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Bear in mind; it was a yr into the pandemic. CDC had been discovered to have modified public well being steerage primarily based on political interference. There have been accusations about how knowledge was being dealt with. It was an extremely difficult second for CDC.

SUMMERS: Proper. And so considering again, in early 2021, she got here to Atlanta to run this enormous public well being company. How would you describe her time there?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Effectively, for Individuals, she grew to become a well-known face in common White Home pandemic briefings, alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci at NIH. However even within the first yr, she confronted criticism for communication missteps. So, for instance, she instructed individuals that when you bought vaccinated, you could not unfold COVID-19. And in the summertime of 2021, extra knowledge made clear that that was not true. And that made her the goal of numerous vitriol, particularly from Republican lawmakers and media figures.

She was additionally criticized for masks steerage and complicated booster steerage, and he or she survived requires her to go in all of these instances. However I’ve heard that the Biden administration was in favor of her leaving and simply could not discover a good time with out stressing the pandemic response, so it looks as if the top of the general public well being emergency that is scheduled for subsequent week presents a pure transition.

And Altman and others give her credit score for attempting to depoliticize CDC, put it on a greater observe. She began a reorganization that is ongoing. And Altman says she led the company with science and dignity. In Walensky’s letter to CDC employees immediately, she describes her departure as one in every of blended feelings and wrote, quote, “I’ve by no means been prouder of something I’ve carried out in my skilled profession.”

SUMMERS: OK. Last item – any sense of who will exchange her?

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Not but. She’s going to stay on the job via the top of June, so there may be time. This can be a presidential appointment. At this level, there isn’t any Senate affirmation course of, so President Biden will simply must make his decide.

SUMMERS: OK. We’ll all watch and wait. Selena Simmons Duffin, thanks.

SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thanks.

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