Last May 11th, it was 24,000. 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. WALENSKY: And maybe MR. She will replace Dr. Robert Redfield, who assumed the role in March 2018. MR. ZIENTS: Next question. 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. Four months later, Dr. Walensky announced that vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in most settings. But right now Im scared., Her impassioned speech startled many people, perhaps none more than her husband. Then, Dr. Fauci will present the data from other countries facing the Delta variant. WALENSKY: You know, so we have always said when we released our COVID-19 community levels back in February that things were on the downward trend, and that was really good news but that we wanted you to put your masks away, not to throw your masks out. The podcasts host, Dr. Howard Bauchner, who is also editor of the journal, praised her effusively. Yesterday I issued a Surgeon Generals Advisory on the dangers of health misinformation. And are we seeing any breakthrough infections among more vulnerable people who have been vaccinated who might have been around younger people? Thank you, Zeke. 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. Weve seen a lot of enthusiasm. And then well open it up for a few questions.Now, over to you, Dr. Walensky.DR. Around the country, we're seeing now decreases in rates of RSV, fortunately, in the South, South Central, even in the Northeast, in the Mid-Atlantic region. In the same hearing, while acknowledging some parents may not want to be first in line, Walensky she would encourage all parents to get their children vaccinated and encourage children to ask their parents for the vaccine. Full Biography Director Speaker Request Meet Our Leadership Team Spotlight Jim Pirkle, MD, PhD, serves as ADLSS and OLSS Director. Neither he nor his parents -- my wife and I -- are sure how long this will last," Slavitt continued, speaking of the younger of his two sons. One of her most prominent papers calculated that HIV drugs had given American patients at least 3 million more years of life. 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. DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, absolutely. Now, health misinformation has been a problem long before COVID. So does that mean were not going to see full approval for their vaccine until January 2022? "I would lie down in traffic for her," says Elizabeth Barks, the infectious disease division's administrative director at Mass General. "I want our kids back in camp," Walensky said, describing how her teenage son counts down the days to his summer camp. Contact: Media Relations. All rights reserved. And as Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci are making clear, this is a question that they are continually evaluating. Even when it's bad news. 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. She later became an assistant professor before being promoted to associate professor in 2007. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. 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. He calls Rochelle his "Wonder Woman" and still remembers when he first saw her 30 years ago, in the cafeteria of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where they were both students. 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 . Lets begin with an overview of the data.Yesterday, CDC reported more than 33,000 new cases of COVID-19. She has been selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Biden . Rochelle is the daughter of Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. (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. Massachusetts General Hospital in April 2020. Health care workers in the US started receiving Pfizers coronavirus vaccine this week, and its expected they could get Modernas vaccine starting next week. Its another community that is safer. You can read the full advisory at SurgeonGeneral.gov/HealthMisinformation.Thanks for your time. 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. Shes not a crier if anything, I get choked up much more easily than she does, he said. "Every year, he comes home from camp and he writes the number of days until he returns to camp the next year. The White House MR. ZIENTS: Thank you, Dr. Walensky.Next question. Rochelle Walensky now makes the laws. And those happening now are even more tragic because they are preventable. I just was wondering if you guys could share a little bit more detail on the current state of thinking around boosters. 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. 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. She earned an MPH in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2001 after participating in the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Womens Hospital Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. She is known for her role in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. 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. Payton Nguyen, 12, receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinefrom nurse Lakera Thorne at Providence Edwards Lifesciences vaccination site in Santa Ana, Calif., , May 13, 2021. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The agencys handling of the COVID-19 outbreak began in a similar way. Or is that just a must have decision by date. Next question.DR. 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. Every person matters. The orange and red counties have substantial to high transmission. 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. And now he could be called the "first gentleman" of the CDC. Not completing the series puts those partially vaccinated at risk of illness. 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. 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. Rochelle Walensky is the daughter of Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. would no longer bend to political meddling. You can just look at her and just by her presence know that she is both competent and dedicated, said Schaffner, a liaison representative on the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Last summer, after protests over the death of George Floyd, more than 1,200 C.D.C. scientist, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said in April. She joined Harvard University in 1998 as a research fellow and in 2001 she became an instructor at Harvard Medical School. Rochelle is married to Loren Walensky, a pediatric oncologist, cancer chemical biologist and director of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program. But the actual studies to do whether or not the transmission occurs is a large study thats ongoing right now. 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. Biddinger said he thinks health care workers attitudes might have changed since then. Walensky's family has a tradition of service, including a grandfather who served in World War II and rose to be a brigadier general. It was the mid-'90s, and the AIDS epidemic was still raging. 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. staff members. And thats a situation that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is going to look at next week. I literally cried the night that I found out that Rochelle was going to be C.D.C. Is the rate of younger people being hospitalized by coronavirus now any different than what we were seeing at other during other surges in the pandemic? We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better. Her father, Edward Bersoff, was a mathematician and engineer at NASA; her mother, Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, was an executive at a technology company. Meet the Team But C.D.C. COVID-19 Vaccines Don't Prevent Transmission of Virus. 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. But, importantly, over 97 percent of people who are entering the hospital right now are unvaccinated. In interviews, several said the morale had drastically improved. And then finally and really important is that - and my family knows this. floundered at the beginning of the pandemic, pilloried for its botched coronavirus test and antiquated data systems. For months, on these briefings, weve talked about barriers to getting vaccinated. She started doing more research, including studies of ways to get more patients tested and treated for AIDS, even in the poorest countries. Please try again later. Stephenson is an infectious disease specialist and vaccine scientist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Younger unvaccinated people weve spoken to believe they will likely be fine if they get infected with coronavirus. Like, are we past the peak at this point? Instead, she's confounding experts and the public alike. Go present to your physician for other tests like for RSV or influenza. Under him, the agency quietly made changes to its guidance, sometimes dictated by the Trump administration, with no public announcement. Thank you for taking my question. It will take all of us. MR. ZIENTS: So, lastly, on international travel, you know, weve made, as we talked about today, important progress on the pandemic. Please.DR. Dr. Rochelle is a member of Boston COVID-19 Advisory Board. 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. And from the moment Walensky stepped up to lead the CDC, she has promised to keep telling the truth. I think governments can play an important role here, but this has got to be an all of the above strategy with everybody in. Dr. Redfield did not respond, and later in the year the agency suspended diversity training programs following an executive order from the Trump administration. 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. 3 Best Diets For Overall Well-Being In 2023. 1. 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. This is amazing!' 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. 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. Daughter of Private and Private WALENSKY: We have seen certainly a surge in cases, a rise in cases. Those counties most frequently correspond to counties with low vaccination rates. 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. 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. "Last fall, one of my sons contracted COVID-19. And as promised, the agency has set about issuing more practical masking guidance regarding settings like summer camps (mostly no) and public transportation (yes). Each COVID-19 death is tragic. Some experts suggest that an administration that values science and increases funding could restore the CDC to preeminence. FAUCI: Well, with regard to the breakthrough infections that were seeing: So, certainly, we are seeing them, but you got to remember what the denominator of the vaccinated people are. Washington, DC 20500, MR. ZIENTS: Good morning, and thanks for joining us. She worked with Dr. Ken Freedberg, a leading expert on how money is best spent in medicine. 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. But six months later, he still suffers from tachycardia, shortness of breath, and ongoing and frequent flu-like symptoms. 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. Date Filed Document Text; March 2, 2023: Filing 3 Notice to File Rule 7.1 Disclosure Statement. White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt, right, with son Zach and wife Lana, in an undated family photo. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? She reinstated diversity training, and has promoted two Black scientists into management positions. We only have time for a few questions today. 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? So to protect communities in those circumstances at those high levels, we have recommended and continue to recommend that those communities wear masks. In 2008 she won the Emerging Leader in HIV Research sponsored by the HIV Medical Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America. She will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, 69, who came to the CDC with a similar resume as an outsider from academia. But very importantly, technology companies must act as well. "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help.". She was six feet tall, he was 5-foot-8 and she just caught my eye, he recalled. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Copyright 2021, Pinoria.com. ", She also had extraordinary energy and discipline, even then, he remembers: "Most of us would roll out of bed and stumble into the lecture hall as our first activity of the day, and for Rochelle, she was already up and running and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for hours before any of us ever saw the light of day.". director he chose would be free to make scientifically grounded decisions without interference from politicians. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. "I know all too well. They married in 1995 and have three sons. 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. So how to navigate this so-called tripledemic (ph) as the holidays approach? MR. ZIENTS: Well, thanks, Dr. Murthy. 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. 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. 2023 Cable News Network. Do we believe that they will maintain some protection against infection? "It was so baffling," she says. 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. 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. "I said 'Oh, my God!' director, is working to restore trust in what once was the worlds premier public health agency.CreditKayana Szymczak for The New York Times. Dr. Walensky, a widely respected infectious disease expert known for her battles with drug companies over prohibitive prices, seemed ideally suited. 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. How does it change the strategy going forward?MR. So, wondering if you all can paint a picture of who is actually being hospitalized by the Delta variant. "And when you get called during a code, your job is to be there to help." 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. declined to comment on how the mask recommendations were handled. She also serves as a co-director, medical practice evaluation center and also as director, program in epidemiology and outcomes research in infectious diseases. 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. Rochelle Walensky is an American physician-scientist. 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. The camp guidance is intended to get our kids to camp and allow them to stay there," she continued. Both vaccines are most effective two weeks after the second dose, with each exceeding 90 percent effectiveness against severe disease, hospitalization, and death in real-world studies. The speed at which she is assuming the job is unusual. At her first all-hands meeting, Dr. Walensky startled the staff when she spoke emphatically about measures to increase diversity and inclusion in the agencys work and in its ranks. Flu hospitalizations for this time of year are higher than they have been in a decade. 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. On December 7, 2020 President-elect Joe Biden nominated Dr. Rochelle Walensky as the new director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The ground is not nearly as stable as we thought it would be.. She called out the drug company Gileads pricing of its preventive therapy for H.I.V. (404) 639-3286. Even apart from the fact that she is only the third woman to lead the agency, Im a different kind of 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. Ive fielded many emails from people who want to know how to get it at the earliest possible moment.. 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 also - you know, we'll consider doing testing before we all gather. 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. "We are experiencing incredibly sad days," she said in an interview in the spring. In 2013 she became a physician at the infectious disease unit and in 2017 she became the chief of division of infectious disease. Stay home when you're sick. When we look over time, we can put these increasing cases in perspective. "Many young people are in this situation, and many, many have it worse.".