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. The truth is that, across our nation, the voices of doctors, nurses, scientists, and public health experts are too often being drowned out by the false sirens of misinformation. Dr. Walensky also has her eye trained on racial equity in health care within the ranks of C.D.C. He wants his life back," she told lawmakers. She acknowledged the weaknesses in her resume. In the mid-1990s, as a medical student and resident at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Walensky saw firsthand the impact of AIDS, which became the focus of her research. Lets go to Zeke Miller with AP. 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. 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. And if you are diagnosed early, we have antivirals that can be used to shorten your disease course and your disease severity. If you do get those symptoms, call your providers early because there are tests not just for COVID-19 but also for influenza. guidance or in her tone: The viruss hold on the country is loosening, but large parts of the population remain unvaccinated and the pandemic is not yet over. Maybe - I will say another really important one - and I'm going to guess you're going to get to this - is vaccination. Geni requires JavaScript! Schaffner added that he thinks Walensky will be an effective communicator in general a much needed skill for her new job, given that many Americans, not just health care workers, are hesitant about the new vaccine. "We are experiencing incredibly sad days," she said in an interview in the spring. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Sister of Private, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochelle_Walensky. Her father, Edward Bersoff, was a mathematician and engineer at NASA; her mother, Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, was an executive at a. 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. 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. In early December, Dr. Katy Stephenson was watching TV with her family and scrolling through Twitter when she saw a tweet that made her shout. I literally cried the night that I found out that Rochelle was going to be C.D.C. At Tuesday's White House briefing, senior coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt revealed that one of his sons, Zach, who is 19, has serious lingering effects from COVID-19 -- six months after he first tested positive. Rochelle Walensky is the daughter of Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. 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. She is known for her role in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'I know what its like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. After medical school, Rochelle Walensky trained in a hospital medical unit so tough it was compared to the Marines. "I have a 16-year-old myself and I can tell you he wanted to get the vaccine. She will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, 69, who came to the CDC with a similar resume as an outsider from academia. Did you encounter any technical issues? She has been selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Biden administration, replacing Robert R. Redfield. Well continue to put public health first. She has been selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Biden . MODERATOR: Thanks, Jeff. Dr. Walensky was known as a tough-minded advocate for people with AIDS. employees called on then-director Dr. Redfield to address ongoing and recurring acts of racism and discrimination against Black staff members and outlined a seven-point plan. When people write about me as the selection for this position, they will say, But she has no on-the-ground public health experience,' she said during a podcast with the Journal of the American Medical Association. CHANG: Well, finally, may I just ask you, what precautions is your own family going to be taking this holiday season? The blue and yellow counties have low or moderate transmission. She later became an assistant professor before being promoted to associate professor in 2007. You have JavaScript disabled. "And I think our entire division would lie down in traffic for her.". Some felt betrayed by agency leaders who did not speak out publicly against the political interference. Full Biography Director Speaker Request Meet Our Leadership Team Spotlight Jim Pirkle, MD, PhD, serves as ADLSS and OLSS Director. And as Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci have said theyve made it very clear this is a question that they are continually evaluating. 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. And then some more protection against hospitalization, severe disease, yes. 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. Theres a lot that we are doing and well continue to do more, but this is a moment where we need technology companies to step up and do more to stop the spread of misinformation. MORE: 5 things to know about COVID protections as Americans head back to work Some experts suggest that an administration that values science and increases funding could restore the CDC to preeminence. And then, a few years later, she saw the advent of HIV treatments that could save patients if those patients could get access to testing and care. Thank you for taking my question. The love of my life for 25 years and counting @RWalensky has been nominated to lead @CDCgov at this critical moment. 2. Every shot is progress. You can see that from January to June, as you move from left to right on the slide, we made remarkable progress, where the percent of counties with high transmission decreased as shown by the decrease in red, and increases in blue and yellow. MR. ZIENTS: Well, thank you, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Walensky.Stepping back, we have come a long way in our fight against this virus. The incoming director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling her family theyll be wearing masks well into next year. 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. For Immediate Release: Friday, June 4, 2021. I want to reiterate that people who got the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are most effective, especially when against the Delta variant when given as two shots in a series. Tenants . Like, are we past the peak at this point? is a large and lumbering agency, bogged down by bureaucracy and hampered by what some experts describe as an overly cautious approach. The CDC also lost its standing as the nations go-to source for case counts and other measures of the epidemic after university researchers and others developed better systems for tracking infections. So, Kaitlan, we dont have the data the clinical data but I think one can make the reasonable assumption based on the level of virus in the nasal pharynx that it would be less likely that that vaccinated breakthrough person would transmit, compared to an unvaccinated person.MR. 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, health misinformation has been a problem long before COVID. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Clearly, the Delta variant is dominant in the world. She is the daughter-in-law of Dr. and Mrs. Norman A. Walensky. 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. 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. 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. Rochelle is 6 feet tall. 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 . She saw many people die. Walensky announced today that she has decided to nationalize America's rental properties, millions and millions of them from Maine to California. Dr. Rochelle Walenskys pioneering research has helped advance the national and global response to HIV/AIDS. 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. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, Dr. Walenskys predecessor, in March 2020. MODERATOR: Last question. floundered at the beginning of the pandemic, pilloried for its botched coronavirus test and antiquated data systems. In the past, the position has generally been unfilled until a new secretary of health and human services is confirmed, and that official names a CDC director. Walensky is an expert on AIDS and HIV. Those who peddle and promote these dangerous lies are harming the very people who are most at risk and furthering a pandemic that has already taken more than 600,000 American lives.We are calling on everyone social media platforms, news organizations, individual Americans to call this activity out and to help get the facts out to your friends, families, and communities so that were protecting our fellow Americans, not purposely putting them in harms way.As I said last week, vaccinating more and more Americans each day is an individual-by-individual, community-by-community effort. 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. COVID-19 Vaccines Don't Prevent Transmission of Virus. And across this country people are suffering. Health misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information about health according to the best evidence at the time. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the administrations lead adviser on the pandemic, defended Dr. Walenskys track record and said he had full confidence in her ability to lead the C.D.C. She is recognized internationally for her work to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa. "She stood out," he says. 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? staff members. She served on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities. 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. Pick Up The Best Face Serums For Oily Skin. 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. 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. Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images. And communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well.You can see the patterns of local outbreaks in the slide of community transmission. 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. Rochelle Walensky is an American physician-scientist. Dr. Rochelle Walensky had just been tapped to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of its advice had been twisted by the Trump administration, and her message was clear: The C.D.C. And we have certainly always said that masking is a personal choice. 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. By all accounts, Dr. Rochelle Walensky is a fierce advocate and an empathetic scientist. And we sent a lot of kids home and camps were closed. C.D.C. Pilates: The CelebrityApproved Workout That Can Help You Stay Lean, Long, and Lithe! 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? "And one of the reasons why she stood out is because she stands tall. 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.