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." But veterans in public health said such changes are expected after a leadership change and have occurred before. Every person matters. Her targets have included the uneven transmission-prevention measures that were in place last summer and a prominent Trump advisers endorsement of a herd immunity approach that would let the virus run free. Dr. Walensky joined the faculty of Harvard University in 2001, where she worked on health policy for infectious diseases, particularly H.I.V. She gained a reputation as a rigorous researcher and a generous mentor, particularly to young women. ZIENTS: Dr Fauci? If you do get those symptoms, call your providers early because there are tests not just for COVID-19 but also for influenza. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh). I want to thank everybody for joining todays briefing and look forward to next week. Its another step toward putting this pandemic behind us.Now, let me turn to Dr. Murthy. And so, if youve got people in your life who trust you, who look to you for advice, then you have the power to help them get them accurate information and help get them vaccinated and protected from COVID-19. In November she co-authored a paper published in Health Affairs in November 2020 that showed the factors that can affect the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data since the announcement seem to have proved Dr. Walensky correct: Infections are still declining, even as much of the country reopens at a vigorous pace. I dont know if the CDC is broken or just temporarily injured, but something must be done to bring it back to health, said Timothy Westmoreland, a Georgetown University law professor focused on public health. ". If you have symptoms, go to areas with high ventilation. Similar. Therell be a lesson learned here.. The blue and yellow counties have low or moderate transmission. "We now have 38,000 new infections, on average, per day. Her leadership of the C.D.C. Stay away from people who are sick. ", Biden Names Massachusetts Doctor To Lead CDC, HHS Spokesperson Takes Leave of Absence After Disparaging Government Scientists, House Oversight Committee Chair: Testimony Points To Political Interference At CDC, Coronavirus Vaccine Q&A: Variants, Side Effects, And More, CDC Offers Clearest Guidance Yet For Reopening Schools, If Schools Follow CDC Guidance, Biden's Reopening Goals Could Be Hard To Reach, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "I don't think we're going to feel it then. (RAGS) (DJH) March 2, 2023 And then some more protection against hospitalization, severe disease, yes. Younger unvaccinated people weve spoken to believe they will likely be fine if they get infected with coronavirus. Pick Up The Best Face Serums For Oily Skin. Showing Editorial results for rochelle walensky. A highway sign in Vancouver, Wash., the day after the state lifted its mask mandate for fully vaccinated adults. Our seven-day average is about 26,300 cases per day, and this represents an increase of nearly 70 percent from the prior seven-day average.The seven-day average of hospital admissions is about 2,790 per day an increase of about 36 percent from the previous seven-day period. CHANG: CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you very much for joining us again. is a large and lumbering agency, bogged down by bureaucracy and hampered by what some experts describe as an overly cautious approach. When asked why CDC posted new guidance telling fully vaccinated individuals they can go without masks before updating guidance for schools, businesses, and travel, Walensky said they're working diligently on it. Before I turn it over to Dr. Murthy, let me reiterate: The best thing we can do right now is to get more Americans vaccinated. CHANG: So I want to start with what seems to be kind of just a common-sense measure against all three viruses right now, and that is masking. Although Israel has the same issue with the dominance of the Delta strain, their hospitalizations have dramatically diminished. : restoring an agency once renowned as the world leader in public health but whose reputation has been battered by political interference, even as the country transitions out of a pandemic that has left nearly 600,000 Americans dead. Please try again later. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Last week, Biden said he would ask for $160 billion for vaccinations and other public health programs, including an effort to expand the public health workforce by 100,000 jobs. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Clearly, the Delta variant is dominant in the world. When youre talking about young people, specifically, getting hospitalized, we are seeing younger people hospitalized right now, relatively speaking to a more extent than we were before. "I told you I'd tell you the truth," she said. They are a last resort. It reads: "Hard things are hard. "I know all too well. And we really want people to gather. Walensky is facing a historic challenge, and leading an agency where she's never worked. 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. Now 51 years old, Walensky has long been a doctor on a mission first, to fight AIDS around the world, and now, to shore up the CDC and get the United States through the pandemic. Back in April, when a huge surge of COVID-19 cases hit, she didn't deny the pain. Much of that has to do with cycles of funding for the national public health system that rise in reaction to a crisis and then fall, hurting efforts to prevent the next crisis. 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. Flu hospitalizations for this time of year are higher than they have been in a decade. 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. The recommendation startled not just the White House but also state and local leaders, prompting criticism that she had failed to prepare Americans for the agencys latest about-face during the pandemic. "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help." She says that The Great Barrington Declaration is predicated on the idea that you know who is going to get sick and you can somehow isolate and protect them, but there is absolutely no evidence that we can do this No-one is suggesting that lockdowns should be the default position. MR. ZIENTS: Thank you, Dr. Walensky.Next question. 3:22 PM EST, Wed December 16, 2020, Researchers tested 14 types of masks. 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. And Dr. Murthy will discuss vaccine confidence with a focus on combatting misinformation and disinformation. And well reopen when the medical folks and the health experts believe its safe to do so. Covid remains her focus for now, and the flawed communications in recent weeks suggest that she is still finding her way. Scenes from Mass General were still fresh in her mind when she arrived at the C.D.C. 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? Her father, Edward Bersoff, was a mathematician and engineer at NASA; her mother, Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, was an executive at a. She will work tirelessly to protect & save lives. https://t.co/VtMNdLN06p, Jen Kates (@jenkatesdc) December 7, 2020. However, if you look at the trend on the far righthand part of that slide, theres that uptick, which somehow was reflecting what Dr. Walensky just told you about the slight uptick that were seeing in hospitalizations in our own country. If you look at the average daily prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant worldwide, if you look at the righthand part of the slide, you see the extraordinary surge in the dominance of this variant worldwide. Over time we will be able to maybe one day not be in our masks anymore, but I have told my family I anticipate theyll be wearing a mask for the better part of 21, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a video produced by her hospital last month. WALENSKY: And maybe MR. President Biden had promised that the C.D.C. 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. Dr. Walensky also has her eye trained on racial equity in health care within the ranks of C.D.C. The recent exits of two high-ranking agency officials within the C.D.C. We are ready for whatever the science tells us.We have secured enough vaccine supply, and, if needed, we will ensure Americans who might need a booster shot are able to get it quickly and easily. Covid has taken up nearly all of Dr. Walenskys attention, but she has a long list of ambitious goals for the agency post-pandemic, including modernizing the nations public health infrastructure, addressing the health impact of climate change and managing what she called the collateral damage of the pandemic. Take a COVID test if you have symptoms. And then, secondly, to Dr. Walenskys point a few minutes ago that this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated: How does that change the administrations response to the pandemic? She is known for her role in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of its advice had been twisted by the Trump administration, and her message was clear: The C.D.C. So the first thing is what can you do in advance? And those happening now are even more tragic because they are preventable. We are dealing with highly effective vaccines. My heart and respect and gratitude to all of our health care workers who are working hard through this season, not just for respiratory viruses in children but through - across the board. Dr. Rochelle is a member of Boston COVID-19 Advisory Board. I cant imagine the CDC and the country being luckier mostly just because you can communicate, which is such an important task for the head of the CDC, he said. 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. 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. "She stood out," he says. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. Here's what they learned (2020), NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 02: Two men have a conversation while socially distancing and wearing masks in Central Park during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on December 02, 2020 in New York City. The pandemic has caused long-term repercussions throughout the tourism and entertainment industries, including temporary and permanent closures of historic and iconic venues, costing the city and businesses billions in revenue. One of her most prominent papers calculated that HIV drugs had given American patients at least 3 million more years of life. 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Crossword Newsletters Based on that, you could make a reasonable assumption that the rate of transmissibility from the asymptomatic vaccinated person to an uninfected person would be less likely than if the person was unvaccinated. In January, shown in the middle of the slide, we were averaging nearly 200,000 cases per day. There are two things happening at the same time, she said. Dr. Walensky, a widely respected infectious disease expert known for her battles with drug companies over prohibitive prices, seemed ideally suited. President Joe Biden and members of his COVID task force are using personal stories to persuade young people get vaccinated following up on the Food and Drug Administration authorizing the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 earlier this month. got the medical and epidemiological science right, but what they did not get right was the behavioral science, the communications and working collaboratively with other stakeholders, Dr. Gounder said. WALENSKY: And maybe Ill just add: When we look at the age demographics of people being hospitalized now, we are seeing them go up in all age demographics, exactly as Dr. Fauci noted, differently for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. And that has had a detrimental effect on the agencys ability to fulfill its mission, said Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC official who now heads the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. MR. ZIENTS: So, lastly, on international travel, you know, weve made, as we talked about today, important progress on the pandemic. And during this pandemic, health misinformation has led people to resist wearing masks in high-risk settings; to turn down proven treatments in some cases to turn to unproven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated. Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images. "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help.". 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. An overwhelming majority of its scientists, and particularly those in management positions, are white. WALENSKY: The messaging that we're using in terms of protecting older people from COVID but also from other respiratory pathogens - and including influenza and RSV, both of which impact older people with more severity as well - is prevention mechanisms such as flu vaccine and COVID vaccination, really critically important. In selecting @RWalensky, Biden has chosen one of the most respected infectious disease docs in the world. So, just curious if you can offer any additional color.MR. And she likens the call she got from the Biden. We want to work closely with schools and employers to get their help, increasingly, in getting people vaccinated in schools and in workplaces. February 27, 2023 Michael S. Regan Administrator Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460 Dr. Rochelle Walensky CHANG: Well, when it comes to people who are 70 or over - I mean, COVID hospitalizations are rising sharply for that group. But through it all, as the long months became a year, Walensky had been out front, Stephenson says, sticking to the science and telling the truth. Anyone can read what you share. Contact: Media Relations. 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. Q Thank you all for doing this. After medical school, Rochelle Walensky trained in a hospital medical unit so tough it was compared to the Marines. Because when we did not have the large group of elderly people vaccinated, then the elderly people dominated the people who were hospitalized and got into trouble.Since we have more of a veil of protection among people because about 85 percent of people who are elderly, greater than 65 are vaccinated when you look at the relative number of people who get hospitalized, clearly, were seeing younger people, from a relative standpoint, more hospitalized than we were seeing before because of the shift of the veil of protection, which is much more dominant among the elderly.DR. 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. And in November, she offered a sobering reality check from the front lines about current COVID-19 medical treatments: "When I think about the armamentarium of true drugs that we have that benefit people with this disease, it's pretty sparse," she said. He said, 'What's wrong, what's wrong, is everything OK?' Its another life protected. Dr. Rochelle Walensky likens the call she got from the Biden team, asking her to lead the CDC amid a pandemic, to a hospital alarm that goes off when a patient's heart has stopped. "I got called during a code," she says. Dr. Kenneth Freedberg was standing at his wife's bedside in a Boston hospital's intensive care unit when an . You know, this strategy as we think, going forward, about how to get the rest of the country vaccinated has got to involve everyone. And within communities, these cases are occurring primarily among unvaccinated individuals. And across this country people are suffering. But, importantly, over 97 percent of people who are entering the hospital right now are unvaccinated. Do we believe that they will maintain some protection against infection? The C.D.C. It's amazing. For instance, the agency removed guidance that advised limiting church choir activities even though studies had demonstrated the danger of transmission of extended singing indoors. MODERATOR: Thanks, Jeff. So, if you are unvaccinated, please get vaccinated now. Importantly, these painful experiences and the impact of COVID-19 are felt, most . Accuracy and availability may vary. And when we get enough information to make that decision, then that decision will be forthcoming. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. 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. Later that week, new guidance from the agency said that vaccinated people could safely travel, but Dr. Walensky added that the agency did not actually want them to travel at all, a stance that left some Americans perplexed. She met her husband, Dr. Loren Walensky, now a pediatric oncologist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, in her first year at the university. The CDC has been sidelined, has been maligned, has been a punching bag for many politicians in the outgoing administration. She later joined the infectious disease unit as an assistant in medicine and later as an assistant physician before she was promoted to the position of an associate physician. "Last fall, one of my sons contracted COVID-19. Walensky brought a plaque from her desk in Boston to CDC headquarters in Atlanta. 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. Who are Rochelle Walensky's Parents? She is involved in a medical discussion on the best strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve herd immunity. 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 . Copyright 2022 NPR. COVID-19 Vaccines Don't Prevent Transmission of Virus. Next slide. Instead, she's confounding experts and the public alike. Lets take a few questions. Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the CDC on vaccines, said Walensky, a practicing infectious disease specialist, is well positioned to encourage health care professionals to take the shot. You know, I think it's really important to sort of go back to the basics of the things that we know that we can do to protect ourselves. She joined Harvard University in 1998 as a research fellow and in 2001 she became an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Loren Walensky (@LorenWalensky) December 7, 2020. 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.. But its also going to take each one of us, you know, as Americans across this country, looking to our family and our friends and asking them if they are vaccinated.You know, this vaccination campaign is going to move, in part, driven by trusted relationships. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Does it mean that large-scale mitigation measures, if we start seeing cases going up you know, mask mandates and the like are not necessary because so many people are vaccinated? When the pandemic began, Dr. Walensky, 52, was chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital. "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help.". "A vaccine may feel unnecessary. And, after weeks of declines, seven-day average daily deaths have increased by 26 percent to 211 per day.Today, Dr. Fauci and I want to provide some perspective about these numbers and how we should be thinking about where we are at this critical moment in the pandemic.There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Rochelle is the daughter of Carol and Edward H. Bersoff, a chief executive. I literally cried the night that I found out that Rochelle was going to be C.D.C. Well continue to put public health first. If and when. 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. 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. FAUCI: Yes, well, as Dr. Rochelle Walensky has said multiple times, the CDC is looking at a number of different cohorts that will get the information that will be needed as she said if and . Health misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information about health according to the best evidence at the time. 1. As for the president, whose own life has been marked by family tragedies, Biden has often referenced his own losses in relating to Americans dealing with the pandemic's hardships. Follow Boston.com on Instagram (Opens in a New Tab), Follow Boston.com on Twitter (Opens in a New Tab), Like Boston.com on Facebook (Opens in a New Tab), Biden picks Mass. She was six feet tall, he was 5-foot-8 and she just caught my eye, he recalled. The podcasts host, Dr. Howard Bauchner, who is also editor of the journal, praised her effusively. I know what its like to not be there when it happens," Biden said back in February to mark 500,000 American lives lost. So the news had special meaning for her and the many jubilant colleagues tweeting their joy. COVID cases have been on the rise after Thanksgiving. All Rights Reserved. Rochelle holds an American nationality and belongs to the white ethnicity. Some experts suggest that an administration that values science and increases funding could restore the CDC to preeminence.