But what should we be doing to keep everyone safe from illness? So, while we are in a far better position than we were in January through April, this increased in red area is giving us all a reason to double-down and get more people vaccinated.The good news is that if you are fully vaccinated, you are protected against severe COVID, hospitalization, and death, and are even protected against the known variants including the Delta variant circulating in the country.If you are not vaccinated, you remain at risk. So weve secured enough vaccine supply. Q Hi. COVID cases have been on the rise after Thanksgiving. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. would no longer bend to political meddling. "We are experiencing incredibly sad days," she said in an interview in the spring. First, we include recommendations for individuals and families. 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. 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. director he chose would be free to make scientifically grounded decisions without interference from politicians. We encourage that people get vaccinated on schedule three or four weeks after your first dose. 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. Those counties most frequently correspond to counties with low vaccination rates. And where Dr. Redfield was reticent, Dr. Walensky has often taken a surprisingly direct approach. Next question.DR. "And I think our entire division would lie down in traffic for her.". 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 . Born Rochelle Bersoff, Dr. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Md. Walensky did not respond to interview requests from The Associated Press. And our biggest concern is that we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations, and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated.Lastly, I want to reiterate the importance of getting fully vaccinated. Every person matters. WALENSKY: Good morning. Redfield made appearances, but he was often a third-tier speaker after remarks dominated by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and others. Published Sister of Private, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochelle_Walensky. She saw many people . And that is to get your COVID-19 vaccine, get your influenza vaccine and to do so now because you'll be - if you get it now, you'll be protected by the holidays. And as promised, the agency has set about issuing more practical masking guidance regarding settings like summer camps (mostly no) and public transportation (yes). Were seeing more and more nurses and health care providers say theyd rather wait to accept the vaccine, Dr. Jos Romero, chairman of the panel, said at the meeting Saturday. staff members. I literally cried the night that I found out that Rochelle was going to be C.D.C. Next slide. Rochelle holds an American nationality and belongs to the white ethnicity. But six months later, he still suffers from tachycardia, shortness of breath, and ongoing and frequent flu-like symptoms. Things You Must Check Before Ordering Clip-In Extensions Online. They have been credited with being the brain behind her success as they gave her everything she needed to develop into the very smart and successful woman she now is. Is it a different sort of strategy? Or is it mainly unvaccinated people that thats happening since this is, as Walensky phrased it, a pandemic of the unvaccinated.And secondly, Pfizer just announced that the FDA has granted a priority review designation for their application for approval of their vaccine. I know thats a hard sell, but I think its a smart sell. He works at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he joined in 2003 as an attending physician in pediatric hematology/oncology and in 2006 he founded his cancer chemical biology research laboratory. 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. While the agency has retained some of its top scientific talent, public health experts say, it has a long list of needs, including new protection from political influence, a comprehensive review of its missteps during the pandemic and more money to beef up basic functions like disease tracking and genetic analysis. 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. Rochelle Paula Walensky is an American physician-scientist who is the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Accuracy and availability may vary. Every shot is progress. 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. She will work tirelessly to protect & save lives. I know what its like to not be there when it happens," Biden said back in February to mark 500,000 American lives lost. WALENSKY: And we know that that's going to be really important for CHANG: So what is being done to increase vaccination among that particular group, people who are 70 years or older? ZIENTS: I just want to also be very crystal clear from an operational perspective: Were prepared for every scenario, including the possibility of boosters, if and when the science, as Dr. Fauci said, shows that they are needed. Transition 2021. WALENSKY: So we have been recommending masking, as I said, in areas with high COVID-19 community levels. Media Statement. 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. What Rochelle will have is instant credibility with the practicing community. Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Within the C.D.C., many scientists were relieved to have a leader who put science above politics. 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 she still eats dinners with her family on Zoom and travels to Massachusetts every weekend. 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 . Stephenson is an infectious disease specialist and vaccine scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. You can read the full advisory at SurgeonGeneral.gov/HealthMisinformation.Thanks for your time. 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. The nurses survey was done in the first half of October, before data came out from Pfizer and Modernas large-scale clinical trials showing that the vaccines had no serious safety concerns and were 95% effective. It was the mid-'90s, and the AIDS epidemic was still raging. You feel healthy, you know people who have had COVID and are doing all right. We have to educate our own work force and answer their questions., He said Walensky struck the right note in her hospitals video when she said that even with the vaccine, we should manage our expectations in terms of taking off our masks.. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy director, and Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who led the agencys infectious disease center have led to speculation about continuing unrest within the agency. For her birthday a few years ago, her team at the hospital came to work dressed like her wearing black, or white, or black-and-white, Dr. Freedberg said. : 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. DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, absolutely. 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. These days, she spends the week in Atlanta, waking up at 5:30 a.m. and working until 11 p.m. But that enthusiasm has been tempered by occasional missteps in communications, an aspect of the job that is more important and challenging than it has ever been. At the time, Dr. Walensky was the hospitals chief infectious diseases expert. If you have symptoms, go to areas with high ventilation. Dr. Walensky was known as a tough-minded advocate for people with AIDS. director than my previous 18 predecessors, and sort of a different kind of character in public health.. Rochelle Walensky was born to a father called Edward Bersoff and a mother identified as Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky gives her opening statement during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss the on-going federal response to Covid-19, May 11, 2021, in Washington, DC. Were asking them to operate with greater transparency, to modify their algorithms to avoid amplifying misinformation, and to swiftly and consistently take action against misinformation super-spreaders on their platforms.Shortly after releasing the advisory, we saw organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation, the Digital Public Library of America, and the American Academy of Pediatrics step up and respond to this call to action by committing their time, resources, and networks to confronting health misinformation. Please.DR. 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. Back to you, Jeff. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. The blue and yellow counties have low or moderate transmission. Lets go to Zeke Miller with AP. The day of her urgent plea, she appeared on MSNBCs The Rachel Maddow Show, where she said vaccinated people do not carry the virus an overly optimistic statement that 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? She reinstated diversity training, and has promoted two Black scientists into management positions. While public health veterans say they do not know everything that happened behind the scenes, they say Redfield apparently failed to stand up for agency scientists, declined to contradict Trump and those around him and passively allowed the Trump administration to post its messaging on CDC websites. Contact: Media Relations. She started doing more research, including studies of ways to get more patients tested and treated for AIDS, even in the poorest countries. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/health/walensky-cdc-covid.html. Take a COVID test if you have symptoms. "I got called during a code," she says. 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. and the exclusion of women from its clinical trials as unacceptable.. Dr. Walensky and the C.D.C. Q Thank you all for doing this. 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. MR. ZIENTS: Well, thanks, Dr. Murthy. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, Dr. Walenskys predecessor, in March 2020. Dr. Murthy.SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: Well, thanks so much, Jeff. And as Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci have said theyve made it very clear this is a question that they are continually evaluating. Id like to continue it along the lines that Dr. Walensky had mentioned, but now maybe take a look at it from a global standpoint, if I could have the first slide. Crossword Newsletters And as Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci are making clear, this is a question that they are continually evaluating. Even before the surveys were rolled out in December 2020 after the first vaccines were authorized, the CDC knew that myocarditisa form of heart . CHANG: CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you very much for joining us again. The respiratory virus RSV has been surging for weeks, sending kids to emergency rooms. Is there any more data you can share with us? "I told you I'd tell you the truth," she said. 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. With that, I will now turn it over to Dr. Fauci.DR. During a news briefing on March 29, as infections began to rise again, she looked into the camera and, in a voice quavering with emotion, pleaded with Americans not to stop taking precautions against the coronavirus. Similar. We only have about 33% of people over the age of 65 who've gotten that bivalent vaccine this season. She will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, 69, who came to the CDC with a similar resume as an outsider from academia. Thank you, Zeke. And from the moment Walensky stepped up to lead the CDC, she has promised to keep telling the truth. DR. FAUCI: Well, what we do know in the cases that were looked at: If you are vaccinated and you get infected, and you compare that person if youre an asymptomatic infected breakthrough vaccinated case and compare that to someone who is infected but not vaccinated and asymptomatic, the level of virus in the nasal pharynx of the vaccinated person is considerably less than the virus in the nasal pharynx of a person who is infected, unvaccinated, and asymptomatic. director. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. She deeply felt the weight of a half a million dead.. 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. And she weighed in often publicly on Twitter, in newspapers, and on radio and TV. They were both Jewish, and shared a deep interest in medicine and music she played the flute and he was a classical pianist. 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? 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. Its another step toward putting this pandemic behind us.Now, let me turn to Dr. Murthy. You know, this strategy as we think, going forward, about how to get the rest of the country vaccinated has got to involve everyone. They'd all been helping each other through the brutal pandemic year, she says, but feeling like they got little to no help from the federal government. But if you are beyond that window, I want to reiterate: There is no bad time to get your second shot.Do it for yourself, your family, and for your community. When we look over time, we can put these increasing cases in perspective. Susan Walsh/AP Please enable JavaScript to use this feature. She has a long history working on HIV and has, in the past year, become a tour de force in addressing COVID. Today, Dr. Walensky will provide an update on the state of the pandemic and the Delta variant. 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. Thank you. And please do it to protect your young children who, right now, cant get vaccinated themselves. The science, as always, will guide us. 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. Rochelle is married to Loren Walensky, a pediatric oncologist, cancer chemical biologist and director of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program. 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. 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. ZIENTS: Please.SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: on thought there? 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. Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky were among the witnesses testifying on ending the pandemic at a hearing held by the House Coronavirus Crisis Subcommittee. Dr. Walensky spoke during an introduction of President Bidens health nominees and appointments in Wilmington, Del., in December. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn't include serious adverse events like heart inflammation on post-vaccination surveys even though the agency knew the issues could be linked to COVID-19 vaccines, documents show. The two announcements captured the challenge that will define Dr. Walenskys tenure at the C.D.C. Every American 12 and older, no matter where they live, has vaccines readily available to them. The bottom line is: We are dealing with a formidable variant in the Delta variant, as reflected by the data that Dr. Walensky told you, and the extreme vulnerability of people who are not vaccinated, which will account for infections, hospitalizations, and, ultimately, deaths.And so the message loud and clear that we need to reiterate is that these vaccines continue to strong protection against SARS-CoV-2, including the Delta variant. "I want our kids back in camp," Walensky said, describing how her teenage son counts down the days to his summer camp. Covid remains her focus for now, and the flawed communications in recent weeks suggest that she is still finding her way. She has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden as the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And within communities, these cases are occurring primarily among unvaccinated individuals. 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. "And one of the reasons why she stood out is because she stands tall. But C.D.C. 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. Its another life protected. She is a past Chair of Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, Chair-elect of the HIV Medical Association, and has previously served as an advisor to both the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Walensky's private Feb. 10, 2021, roundtable featured five participants, including Roz Keith, the founder and executive director of Stand With Trans, an organization for parents of transgender. 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. And so why its so important for yourself, your family, and your community to get vaccinated. director, is working to restore trust in what once was the worlds premier public health agency.CreditKayana Szymczak for The New York Times. Weve seen a lot of enthusiasm. 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. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Center for Disease Prevention and Control Director Rochelle Walensky about the "tripledemic.". WALENSKY: So we're going back to a lot of the trusted messengers, back to the community, making sure that those vaccines are available, working with our long-term care facilities, working with the community, doing education, working with the hospital community, the medical community to really reiterate the importance of these vaccines as well as to demonstrate the data of how well these vaccines are working. She is married to Loren D. Walensky and they have 3 children. So what Rochelle is particularly good at is understanding data about treatments and public health and costs, and putting those three sets of data together to understand, 'Well, what do we do? Rochelle Walensky is the daughter of Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. Walensky is facing a historic challenge, and leading an agency where she's never worked. And were seeing it in the data. treatments. "We now have 38,000 new infections, on average, per day. And we sent a lot of kids home and camps were closed. So do we anticipate that they're going to have the same rates of protection as they did for the original strain? Importantly, these painful experiences and the impact of COVID-19 are felt, most . 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. Dr. Redfield did not respond, and later in the year the agency suspended diversity training programs following an executive order from the Trump administration. Some surveys and focus groups have shown that many health care workers are hesitant to get the vaccines. "I said 'Oh, my God!' The pandemic also exposed some CDC failures and weaknesses unrelated to politics. Next Post: Readout of President Joe Bidens Participation in the APEC Virtual Leaders Retreat, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/07/16/press-briefing-by-white-house-covid-19-response-team-and-public-health-officials-45/?utm_source=link, Office of the United States Trade Representative, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COVID-Press-Briefing_16July2021_for-transcript.pdf. Im going to pause here, Im going to lose the script and Im going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom, she said, her eyes glistening with tears. But this time, the Biden transition team named Walensky in advance, so she could take the agencys reins even before her boss is in place. The C.D.C. Next question. He works at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where he joined in 2003 as an attending physician in pediatric hematology/oncology and in 2006 he founded his cancer chemical biology research laboratory. Dr. Rochelle Walensky was supposed to be a breath of fresh air after Trump-era CDC messaging fiascos. 1. By late 2020, reports that the Trump administration had rewritten recommendations purported to be from agency experts further damaged public trust. But Barks and others who know Walensky well say she's clear-eyed and ready to dig in to meet the challenge; she'll try a new approach if first attempts fall short. They said the goal date for a decision is January 2022. The camp guidance is intended to get our kids to camp and allow them to stay there," she continued. 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. But Dr. Fauci said that he believed some small missteps were inevitable, and that Dr. Walensky was a quick study. She called out the drug company Gileads pricing of its preventive therapy for H.I.V. At Vanderbilt, weve been doing Covid Vaccine 101, 102, 103, 104, said Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. And just this week, I traveled to New Mexico to meet with youth leaders, clinicians, and public health leaders from across the state. Mistrust of the coronavirus vaccine was a major topic of discussion at an ACIP meeting last week. 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. In a hearing on COVID-19 on Capitol Hill last week, Walensky was forced to defend the agencys integrity against questions around recent murky messaging and shared a personal story about her son to support the CDC guidance on summer camps. Scenes from Mass General were still fresh in her mind when she arrived at the C.D.C. Some experts suggest that an administration that values science and increases funding could restore the CDC to preeminence. 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. 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. But as weve all said: At this particular time, right now, we dont recommend that there be boosters for people.MR. In 2017, she became chief of infectious diseases at M.G.H., the first woman and the third person to hold the job in 70 years. There are two things happening at the same time, she said. Her openness signaled her genuine anguish about the state of the pandemic, he added. 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.