May 5, 2023 – CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, will step down from her post at the top of June, 2½ years after taking office at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walensky, 54, was sworn in on the primary day of President Joe Biden's presidency in January 2021, making her the nineteenth…th Director of the national agency accountable for protecting the health of Americans and combating disease threats.
The news of her resignation comes on the identical day that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a worldwide health emergency. aboveand just just a few days before the United States' federal emergency declaration comes into effect.
Walensky didn't give a particular reason for her resignation. In an internal email to the CDC announcing the top of her term, she wrote: “At this pivotal moment for our nation and public health, after working together and accomplishing so much over the past two-plus years, I will be resigning with mixed emotions.” Politico reported.
Before heading the CDC, she worked as a professor at Harvard Medical School and headed the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was also energetic in public health work on HIV and AIDS on the WHO and the United Nations.
During its term in office, the agency also faced criticism. Medical experts complained that the federal government's messages on safety protocols and vaccines against COVID-19 were too complex and poorly timed.
In a opinionPresident Biden called Walensky's service lifesaving. “As CDC director, she led a complex organization on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic with honesty and integrity,” President Biden said. “She deployed our best scientists and public health experts to address the urgent crises we faced.”