Global Courant 2023-05-05 22:32:59
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Friday that she was stepping down from her position.
The CDC said Walensky will leave the agency at the end of June.
“The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC director,” Walensky wrote in her letter of resignation to President Biden. “I have taken on this role, at your request, with the goal of leaving behind the dark days of the pandemic and moving CDC – and public health – forward to a much better and more trusted place.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
The White House thanked Walensky for her services in a statement.
“Dr. Walensky saved lives with her steadfast and relentless focus on the health of every American. As director of the CDC, she led a complex organization on the frontline of a one-off pandemic with honesty and integrity. She has our best scientists and public health experts brought together to turn the tide in the pressing crises we have faced,” said President Biden.
The president added that Walensky “leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to face health threats and protect Americans. We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her well in her next chapter .”
The CDC said that under Walensky’s oversight, it “successfully addressed a multinational mpox outbreak, contained the spread of Ebola in Uganda and responded to numerous infectious disease threats in countries around the world.”
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Dr. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky delivers an opening statement at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the federal response to the coronavirus disease and new emerging variants at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January 11, 2022. (Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS)
“CDC launched a forecasting and outbreak center and raised hundreds of millions of dollars to begin modernizing our country’s data infrastructure,” it added.
Before joining the CDC, Walensky “served chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020 and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020,” it also said.
During COVID-19, a culture war broke out with many questioning the CDC’s efforts to curb the spread of the virus, as well as its push for vaccine mandates, claiming that such public health measures infringe on individual rights.
“What this pandemic has taught us and shown us is that we need to talk to the American people now. We need to say what we know when we know and provide timely data and updates to people along the way. tell people what we don’t know as we make decisions,” Walensky told Dr. Marc Siegel of Fox News.
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CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky answers questions from reporters at a press conference in October 2021. (Courtesy of the White House YouTube Channel)
Walensky also faced criticism after it emerged she had met with parents just once ahead of the publication of guidelines for reopening schools in 2021, her internal calendar revealed.
Walensky stated several times that they consulted parents’ needs for guidance, despite her calendar showing the only 30-minute meeting. And because parents only got one session, teacher unions had constant access to her and other high-ranking CDC officials while influencing last-minute changes to guidelines.
Greg Norman, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Dr. Marc Siegel and Joe Schoffstall of Fox News contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
