Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will step down at the end of June, the White House said Friday. Shortly after, Valensky himself confirmed the news.
Valensky “Her unwavering focus on the health of every American saved lives,” President Joe Biden releases statement praising her leadership “A complex organization on the front lines of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic with honesty and integrity.”
she is leaving the cdc “A stronger institution, better equipped to respond to health threats and protect Americans,” The statement concluded.
In her own public statement, Valensky said the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency was an opportune time to make a decision “A huge shift.” She said her goal was to stay “During the dark days of the pandemic, the CDC — and public health — stepped forward from a better, more trusted place.”
CDC “Saving and improving lives, protecting the nation and the world from the greatest infectious disease threat we’ve seen in over 100 years,” Valensky said.
Biden had appointed Warensky to head the CDC even before taking office.She has been a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School since 2012 and is best known for developing vaccination strategies “Underserved Communities” and AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health.
Walensky helped implement Biden’s Covid-19 strategy of mandating masks and vaccinations, which has proven to be both unpopular and largely ineffective. In August 2021, she invoked pandemic emergency powers to extend a moratorium on evictions previously imposed by Congress. This was struck down by the US Supreme Court in 2021 because it exceeded the CDC’s purview.
In October 2022, a month after receiving a booster shot, Valensky tested positive for the coronavirus. She tested positive again after being treated with Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid.
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