Last summer, after protests over the death of George Floyd, more than 1,200 C.D.C. "He's young and fit and in the prime of his life. First, lets go to Carl ODonnell at Reuters. Yesterday I issued a Surgeon Generals Advisory on the dangers of health misinformation. "I don't think we're going to feel it then. Its safe, its free, its readily available, and its never been more important.As we manage this virus, our whole-of-government effort continues to work to get more people vaccinated, address areas where were seeing outbreaks among the unvaccinated, and prepare for every scenario.First and foremost, we continue to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of new people each day meeting unvaccinated Americans where they are, answering their questions, helping them make up their mind, and making it even easier and more convenient to get a shot as soon as they are ready to do so.Were doing this by trus- by entrusting and empowering messengers trusted messengers to have the conversations we know work whether its vaccinated people in communities across the country talking directly to their neighbors, sharing their own vaccination journey and answering question; or its Olivia Rodrigo using her voice and platform to spread the word.Were working with doctors, pharmacists, employers, educators, and school administrators to bring vaccines to where people are.And as Dr. Murthy will discuss, were taking disinformation and misinformation head on.We continue to see efforts to deliberately mislead the American people about the importance of vaccination. Look, theres a lot government can do. Folks across the political spectrum have had reason to doubt the veracity and accuracy, sometimes, of CDCs messages, said Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Its another step toward putting this pandemic behind us.Now, let me turn to Dr. Murthy. Misinformation robs us of our freedom to make decisions for our health based on science and facts.Addressing health misinformation is an urgent challenge, a moral and civic responsibility that we must meet together. If you look at this map of the world, theyre at about 100 countries that have now have the Delta variant that is detected in them in June of since June in 2020. For months, on these briefings, weve talked about barriers to getting vaccinated. I guarantee it.. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And then some more protection against hospitalization, severe disease, yes. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky about new guidelines that have the isolation period for asymptomatic people who have COVID.. An error occurred. And while those threats have often been related to what we eat, drink, and smoke, today we live in a world where misinformation poses an urgent and insidious threat to our nations health. The entire country was in a high level of transmission. White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt, right, with son Zach and wife Lana, in an undated family photo. Q Thanks so much. We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. The shirts are part of an outpouring of affection in Boston biomedical circles and far beyond that greeted Walensky's appointment including a flood of floral bouquets that her husband and three sons helped answer the door to accept after word of her new job got out. floundered at the beginning of the pandemic, pilloried for its botched coronavirus test and antiquated data systems. Walensky has also shared her familys personal plight with the virus in urging more Americans to get the shot. Surgeon General Advisories are reserved for urgent public health threats. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3 million kids under 17 have contracted COVID-19, Slavitt said, "and even though it's rare for kids to get severely ill from COVID-19, it can happen.". I think we should be making sure people understand because the question often gets asked, particularly among the unvaccinated If youre talking about boosting people, does that mean that the vaccines dont work? Thats not the case at all. In selecting @RWalensky, Biden has chosen one of the most respected infectious disease docs in the world. If we want to address health misinformation, well need an all-of-society response, and thats why the advisory has recommendations for everyone. and the country out of the pandemic. Then, Dr. Fauci will present the data from other countries facing the Delta variant. He studies and treats children's blood cancers at Boston Children's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, 69, who came to the CDC with a similar resume as an outsider from academia. However, we know that the vaccines that are listed on the lefthand part of this slide that are being used in this country namely the Pfizer, Moderna, and the J&J both in lab studies and in clinical effectiveness studies show the effectiveness of these vaccines against the Delta variant, particularly, and importantly, against hospitalization. Leading and rebuilding the CDC in the midst of a pandemic will be difficult. Its another community that is safer. Four months later, Dr. Walensky announced that vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in most settings. Some surveys and focus groups have shown that many health care workers are hesitant to get the vaccines. They married in 1995 and have three sons. CHANG: I will. There are two things happening at the same time, she said. She also serves as a co-director, medical practice evaluation center and also as director, program in epidemiology and outcomes research in infectious diseases. But we are still learning about the long-term effects of COVID," Slavitt added, in a personal plea to increase young adult vaccinations across the country. Then, later in the month, a top CDC infectious-disease expert, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, upset the Trump administration by speaking frankly at a news conference about the dangers of the virus when President Donald Trump was still downplaying it. Walensky told the medical journal JAMA last month that she'll welcome straight talk from the scientists at the CDC as well. Rochelle holds an American nationality and belongs to the white ethnicity. "We now have 38,000 new infections, on average, per day. What Rochelle will have is instant credibility with the practicing community. "She stood out," he says. We recommend wash your hands. WALENSKY: Good morning. The video, plus another video Walensky appears in, are part of an effort to help educate hospital employees about the coronavirus vaccines, according to Dr. Paul Biddinger, director of emergency preparedness for Mass General Brigham. CHANG: Well, when it comes to people who are 70 or over - I mean, COVID hospitalizations are rising sharply for that group. So, if you are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated now. And its great to be with all of you again today. The Walenskys decided early on that they would not work evenings or weekends, would be home for dinner every day, and take laptop-free vacations whenever their children were off school. MR. ZIENTS: So, Dr. Fauci on breakthrough cases. director in happiness, in joy, said James Krellenstein, executive director of the advocacy group PrEP4All Collaboration. MR. ZIENTS: Well, thanks, Dr. Murthy. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) And when we get enough information to make that decision, then that decision will be forthcoming. She acknowledged the weaknesses in her resume. Rochelle Paula Walensky ( ne Bersoff; born April 5, 1969) is an American physician-scientist who is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. And if you look at the far right of the slide, as of just a couple of days ago, they are very low. This year, it got to zero and I told him he wasn't going.". Massachusetts General Hospital in April 2020. Several topics were raised during the hearing, including the pause on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, the timeline for reopening schools, and COVID-19 testing for . Now a new CDC director is arriving to a mammoth task: reasserting the agency while the pandemic is in its deadliest phase yet and the nations largest-ever vaccination campaign is wracked by confusion and delays. In the last week, 10 percent of counties have moved into high transmission risk, in the red, and 7 percent of counties have moved into substantial risk, in the orange. My husband looked over. I know what its like to not be there when it happens," Biden said back in February to mark 500,000 American lives lost. She was starting to broaden her focus from patient care to bigger-picture questions about the increased equity in health care that more funding and optimal treatment choices could bring. That analytic skill has come in handy over the past year, as she has helped lead the pandemic response for her Boston hospital and for the state of Massachusetts. Dr. Walenskys appointment instantly made her one of the most influential women in the nation, and was greeted with enthusiasm by public health experts and C.D.C. At the same time, as Dr. Fauci said, because we have so many people fully vaccinated, including about 80 percent of seniors those who are most vulnerable, those over 65 years of age we will likely see smaller increases in hospitalizations, similar to the Israel and UK experience. And we sent a lot of kids home and camps were closed. She called out the drug company Gileads pricing of its preventive therapy for H.I.V. If you have areas of low vaccination and high case rates, then I would say local policymakers might consider whether masking at that point would be something that would be helpful for their community until they scale up their vaccination rates because more people than not in the community are unvaccinated.SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: And, Jeff, can I just add MR. At the time, Dr. Walensky was the hospitals chief infectious diseases expert. Tens of millions have been infected. I was hoping you could talk about the objective metrics that youre looking to present to the President for when some of these travel restrictions can be eased. Like, here in LA County, the public health director, Barbara Ferrer, said just this week that, quote, "everybody should just go ahead and put those masks on when they're indoors." Statement from Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rochelle Walensky is an American physician-scientist. ZIENTS: Dr Fauci? "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help." CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said more than 4.1 million adolescents 12 to 17 have been vaccinated so far, including over half a million 12-15-year-olds who have lined up to get a shot since the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for adolescents earlier this month. WALENSKY: I was just going to say, with regard to the immunosuppressed population, this is a little bit of a different scenario where we might be concerned that in fact they didnt get full protection from their initial two doses, so we would be looking at a third prime dose in that situation. CHANG: These latest bivalent COVID boosters, I mean, how well do you think they will work given the fact that they target sub-variants that really aren't dominant anymore, right? "At one point, one of my sons said, 'You know, Dad, we should just open a florist shop at this point," says Rochelle Walensky's husband, Dr. Loren Walensky. In an interview last month, Dr. Schuchat said she had come to admire and like Dr. Walensky: This is a really tough leadership job, and I think shes absolutely the right person for it.. My kids jumped up. Simply put, health misinformation has cost us lives. Born Rochelle Bersoff, Dr. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Md. After medical school, Rochelle Walensky trained in a hospital medical unit so tough it was compared to the Marines. Rochelle Walensky (Rochelle Paula Walensky, MD, MPH) serves as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. President Biden had promised that the C.D.C. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who has been selected to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, to announce President-elect Joe Biden's his health care team. And she likens the call she got from the Biden administration to a hospital alarm that goes off when a patient is in cardiac arrest. That includes 11 million delayed pediatric vaccinations; widespread mental health problems; an uptick in opioid overdoses; and lapses in control of high blood pressure, cancer and H.I.V. Walensky took part in the video a few weeks before President-elect Joe Biden appointed her on December 7 to be his CDC chief when he takes office, and shes made few public comments since then, and declined to comment for this story. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Crossword Newsletters Contact: Media Relations. Still, Boston colleagues say they have no doubt she'll succeed in making the transition from leading an infectious diseases division of 300 staffers to a public health agency of about 13,000. This top tier agency, world-renowned, hasn't really been appreciated over the last four years and really markedly over the last year or so. director, is working to restore trust in what once was the worlds premier public health agency. That was a big oversight.. It was the mid-'90s, and the AIDS epidemic was still raging. The longer we wait, the more lives we lose. Ive heard some commentary though, suggesting that among immunosuppressed people and the elderly, they might be needed. Dr. Murthy.SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: Well, thanks so much, Jeff. Thats why I issued the Surgeon General Advisory. She has a long history working on HIV and has, in the past year, become a tour de force in addressing COVID. I have heard from my colleagues in the hospital that some of the nurses and health care workers are unwilling to be vaccinated because they have heard that its going to affect their fertility and there are some other myths that are floating around, Carol Hayes, a nurse midwife whos a liaison representative to ACIP, said at the meeting. MODERATOR: Kaitlan Collins at CNN. And as Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci have said theyve made it very clear this is a question that they are continually evaluating. And flu cases are exploding. When you talk about a third shot for a two-shot vaccine regimen or another shot for the J&J single-dose regimen, youre talking about enhancing the durability of an already highly effective vaccine. The vaccines work. Slavitt said he knows it may be easy for young people to think COVID-19 doesn't affect them because they may feel healthy and be asymptotic but emphasized that experts still don't know enough about the long-term effects of the disease. The job, he noted, has a steep learning curve. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Dr. Gounder, who has known Dr. Walensky since 2004 and considers her a friend, said Dr. Walensky was still the best person she could think of to lead the C.D.C. Because we have fully vaccinated more than 160 million Americans, weve fundamentally changed the course of this pandemic from one that puts the lives and livelihoods of all Americans at risk, to one that predominantly threatens unvaccinated people.As Dr. Walensky said, as the more transmissible Delta variant continues to spread across the country, we will likely continue and experi- continue to experience an increase in COVID cases in the weeks ahead, with these cases concentrated in communities with lower vaccination rates. Im encouraged by these commitments because turning the tide against health misinformation will take all of us. She is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and President-elect Biden has announced that she will be the director of the new CDC. Generals infectious diseases chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky to lead CDC, How local doctors and public health experts are reacting to Biden picking MGHs Rochelle Walensky to head CDC, Biden says his advisers will lead with science and truth. "I would lie down in traffic for her," says Elizabeth Barks, the infectious disease division's administrative director at Mass General. She is known for her role in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. She saw many people die. But many felt the agency had rushed the decision to end mask use without considering parts of the country where infections were still high, and without grasping the mistrust and culture clashes the new advice would engender. What are you and your family doing? Rochelle Walensky is the daughter of Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. Q Thank you all for doing this. "I got called during a code," she says. Dr. Rochelle Walensky was supposed to be a breath of fresh air after Trump-era CDC messaging fiascos. But right now Im scared., Her impassioned speech startled many people, perhaps none more than her husband. They were both Jewish, and shared a deep interest in medicine and music she played the flute and he was a classical pianist. In interviews, several said the morale had drastically improved. Maybe, you know, latter part of this year, early next year just curious.I also know that there can be higher risk of side effects, potentially, with a third booster shot. You don't need to wait for CDC's recommendation, certainly, to wear a mask. Under him, the agency quietly made changes to its guidance, sometimes dictated by the Trump administration, with no public announcement. At the same time, we have an increase in cases and the existence of the Delta variant. In fact, just four states accounted for more than 40 percent of all cases in the past week, with one in five of all cases occurring in Florida alone. We are dealing with highly effective vaccines. Rochelle is the daughter of Carol and Edward H. Bersoff, a chief executive. Asked on CNN whether the Biden plan to get 100 million Americans vaccinated in 100 days could restore a sense of normalcy, she responded with characteristic bluntness a quality that could cause trouble in these polarized times. Walensky, an HIV researcher, has not worked at the CDC or at a state or local health department. Born Rochelle Bersoff, Dr. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Md. So, literally, in real time, we talk about this literally on a daily basis, and evidence is being accumulated on a daily and weekly basis. On May 12, 2021, CDC recommended use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in people aged 12 years and up based on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in adolescents following clinical trials. "I got called during a code," she says. Geni requires JavaScript! And as promised, the agency has set about issuing more practical masking guidance regarding settings like summer camps (mostly no) and public transportation (yes). Beyond unmuzzling her agency's staff, she vows to tackle many other challenges, pushing particularly hard on the vaccine rollout and rebuilding the public health system. 1. Washington, DC 20500, MR. ZIENTS: Good morning, and thanks for joining us. She was born in 1969 in Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S. She received an AB summa cum laude in biochemistry and molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Center for Disease Prevention and Control Director Rochelle Walensky about the "tripledemic.". Washington CNN Since the early days of her time as Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky has made comments and claims over Covid-19 guidance. She is the daughter of Carol Bersoff-Bernstein and Edward H. Bersoff. Over the next few months, Bernstein spent hours and hours in meetings with CDC officials, including agency Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, and then more time preparing presentations on education . Any decision about opening international travel will be guided by our public health and medical experts. The C.D.C. Walensky kept publishing research on key pandemic topics, such as college testing and antibody treatments. And this week, at the request of the Nevada governor, we are deploying more than a hundred people to the state to help enhance vaccine access and support vaccine outreach efforts.And were providing CDCs technical expertise including on genetic sequencing, data analysis, and outbreak response to Missouri to help support the state in its response.We stand ready to support our state partners with the help they need to curb the spread of the virus and increase vaccinations in their states.And finally, we continue to be prepared for any and every scenario, including the possibility of booster shots, if and when the science shows they are needed.At this time, the CDC and FDA have said Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot. Sister of Private, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochelle_Walensky. And all of these if-thens.". Dr. Walensky also has her eye trained on racial equity in health care within the ranks of C.D.C. expert at the hospital who was first her mentor, then a collaborator. Not necessarily. As someone who has lost 10 family members to COVID-19 and who wishes each and every day that they had had access to the vaccine, its painful to know that nearly every death we are seeing now from COVID-19 could have been prevented. Pick Up The Best Face Serums For Oily Skin. (404) 639-3286. Shell take the helm of CDC at perhaps its most critical moment. And so we are hopeful that those trends will continue. Inside the agency, she wants to raise morale, in large part by restoring the primacy of science and setting politics to the side. Eventually, she became his boss. "I got called during a code," she says. The President, yesterday, said that he was hoping for a timeline to set a timeline for lifting some travel restrictions in the next couple of days. is a large and lumbering agency, bogged down by bureaucracy and hampered by what some experts describe as an overly cautious approach. And communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.You can see the patterns of local outbreaks in the slide of community transmission. I saw the mental toll they were taking, but I did not see them giving up.. And were seeing it in the data. Veteran CDC scientists handled crises such as a deadly national surge in hepatitis A cases among homeless people and illicit drug users, and a mysterious spike in severe illnesses in people who vaped electronic cigarettes. "I told you I'd tell you the truth," she said. The task falls to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 51, an infectious-diseases specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who is expected to become CDC director this week a . The recent exits of two high-ranking agency officials within the C.D.C. Dr. Walensky served as 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. Dr. Walensky, right, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administrations pandemic adviser, left, and Dr. David Kessler of Operation Warp Speed, at a House subcommittee meeting in April. In fact, in the past week, the five states with the highest case rates Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, and Nevada had a higher rate of people getting newly vaccinated compared to the national average.At the same time, our COVID-19 Surge Response Teams are working with governors and local public health officials to provide specific federal resources and capabilities to fight outbreaks due to the spread of the Delta variant.We are already helping many states to identify and address specific needs, including testing, therapeutics, and vaccinations.
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