Head of top US public health agency resigns, citing pandemic transition
CDC’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a key figure in Biden administration’s response to COVID, to step down in June; US president thanks doctor for her ‘unwavering focus’
The head of the main US public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control, announced on Friday that she will step down from her post at the end of June.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who was a key figure in the Biden administration’s response to COVID-19, did not give a direct reason for her departure, but suggested that the easing of the coronavirus pandemic had brought her tenure at the CDC to a natural endpoint.
Walensky’s last day will be June 30, CDC officials said, and an interim director wasn’t immediately named. She sent a resignation letter to US President Joe Biden and announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting.
Walensky, 54, has been the agency’s director for a little over two years, and the announcement took many health experts by surprise. In her letter to Biden, she expressed “mixed feelings” about the decision and didn’t explain exactly why she was stepping down, but said the nation is at a moment of transition as emergency declarations come to an end.
“I have never been prouder of anything I have done in my professional career,” she wrote.
“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,” the doctor said in a letter to Biden which was released to the public.
Walensky was tapped by Biden in December 2020 to head the CDC and said she had taken on the role some two years ago with the goal of “leaving behind the dark days of the pandemic.”
She came with a reputation as a prominent voice on the pandemic, sometimes criticizing how the government was responding. She was brought in to raise morale at the CDC, to rebuild public trust in the agency and to improve its sometimes-bumbling response to the pandemic.
At the time of her arrival, more than 400,000 US COVID-19 deaths had been reported, and states were scrambling to get supplies of new vaccines. Morale at the CDC was abysmal. The Trump administration had marginalized the agency, with the White House taking over the government’s messaging about the pandemic and sometimes opposing or undermining what the CDC wanted to do.
Under Walensky, the CDC led an unprecedented vaccination campaign as Biden’s administration tried to steer the nation out of the pandemic.
She appeared regularly on television to relay prevention messages to Americans and explain the latest measures. She was also criticized during the pandemic, particularly for her agency’s sometimes chaotic communications.
She leaves at a time when the national COVID-19 death toll stands at about 1.1 million. Reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all been trending down for months.
Walensky, who is Jewish, was previously chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Biden praised her in a statement, saying she had “saved lives with her steadfast and unwavering focus on the health of every American.”
Walensky “led a complex organization on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic with honesty and integrity,” he wrote, adding that he wished her the best.
She “leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans,” he said.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
