In one of the videos, Walensky explains the basics of the two vaccines, including that they use a new type of technology, they need to be given in two doses, and they have to be kept at cold temperatures. And please do it to protect your young children who, right now, cant get vaccinated themselves. 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. Walensky's family has a tradition of service, including a grandfather who served in World War II and rose to be a brigadier general. She has weighed in often and publicly about coronavirus policy and medicine, speaking to journalists with a natural candor that's contrasted with the stiffer style of some federal officials. 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. 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. At the same time, we have an increase in cases and the existence of the Delta variant. 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. It was that sometimes it felt like sabotage. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Dr. Rochelle Walensky was supposed to be a breath of fresh air after Trump-era CDC messaging fiascos. 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. 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. 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. Well, we're going to put that question now to CDC director Rochelle Walensky. 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. "I told you I'd tell you the truth," she said. 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. 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." The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Thats something I think will be fixed on Day One, he said. 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. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky about new guidelines that have the isolation period for asymptomatic people who have COVID.. 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. Meet the Team "I think they've been muzzled that science hasn't been heard. itself. Despite a grueling workload of patient care and research, Dr. Walensky made it to her sons piano concerts, karate tournaments and half marathons, according to her husband. And today, I want to focus on the challenge of health misinformation thats affecting millions of Americans. Simply put, health misinformation has cost us lives. Yesterday I issued a Surgeon Generals Advisory on the dangers of health misinformation. Contact: Media Relations. Dr. Walensky appeared before a Senate appropriations subcommittee meeting in May. CHANG: Well, turning to RSV, what do you see happening with those infections? Rochelle Walensky Religion Susan Walsh/AP This year, it got to zero and I told him he wasn't going.". treatments. Were going to have to really seriously address these myths that are floating around, and Im not even sure how to start to do that, she added. Born Rochelle Bersoff, Dr. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Md. 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. Kenneth Freedberg was standing at his wife's bedside in a Boston hospital's intensive care unit when an . Or is that just a must have decision by date. "I don't think we're going to feel it then. 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? But C.D.C. 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.. And if needed, well ensure Americans who might need a booster shot are able to get one quickly and easily. Some surveys and focus groups have shown that many health care workers are hesitant to get the vaccines. Not completing the series puts those partially vaccinated at risk of illness. It was the mid-'90s, and the AIDS epidemic was still raging. Walensky kept publishing research on key pandemic topics, such as college testing and antibody treatments. 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. Walensky announced today that she has decided to nationalize America's rental properties, millions and millions of them from Maine to California. White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt, right, with son Zach and wife Lana, in an undated family photo. Its a science-based sell, and we have to stick with that, he said. 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 then some more protection against hospitalization, severe disease, yes. Yes, we actually reported on that. Walensky's family has a tradition of service, including a grandfather who served in World War II and rose to be a brigadier general. Second, unfortunately, if you have symptoms, if you are feeling unwell, we are going to ask you to stay home. Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3 million kids under 17 have contracted COVID-19, Slavitt said, "and even though it's rare for kids to get severely ill from COVID-19, it can happen.". 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. 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. 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. "It was so baffling," she says. Loren Walensky (@LorenWalensky) December 7, 2020. Were asking people to raise their bar for sharing health information by checking sources before they share information to ensure its backed by credible, scientific sources. 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 . All this has led to avoidable illnesses and deaths. You don't need to wait for CDC's recommendation, certainly, to wear a mask. We are saying we don't really want people to gather if they're feeling unwell. She saw many people die. They were both Jewish, and shared a deep interest in medicine and music she played the flute and he was a classical pianist. Maybe, you know, latter part of this year, early next year just curious.I also know that there can be higher risk of side effects, potentially, with a third booster shot. Fitness Guru, Austin Alexander Burridge, Reviews 5 Ways to Improve the Quality of Workouts, The best Vegan protein Shakes in 2023 and its health benefits Tried and Tested. 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. Pilates: The CelebrityApproved Workout That Can Help You Stay Lean, Long, and Lithe! She tussled with pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for H.I.V. So how to navigate this so-called tripledemic (ph) as the holidays approach? Rochelle is married to Loren Walensky, a pediatric oncologist, cancer chemical biologist and director of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program. ZIENTS: Dr. Walensky, do you want to take the second question? 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. Stay home when you're sick. That black hole in your chest, you feel like youre being sucked into it. Khazarian-Installed CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Lies Whenever Her Lips Are Moving Producing An Exploding Covid Vax Mortality Rate (Video) Posted on March 3, 2023 by "They have been diminished," she said. Statement from Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The AP is solely responsible for all content. 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. You know, this strategy as we think, going forward, about how to get the rest of the country vaccinated has got to involve everyone. She is known for her role in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 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? 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. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. 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. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. I think people have had some more time to read about and think about the vaccine, he said. Unfortunately, he is one of the many Americans battling long-term symptoms," Slavitt said. 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. "And it was like a switch went off," he says, "and she just had this natural gift for this style of testing whether if you did X, would Y happen, and if you did X with a little more money, then how would that affect Y? 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. Within weeks, the agency was pushed off stage. The respiratory virus RSV has been surging for weeks, sending kids to emergency rooms. So do we anticipate that they're going to have the same rates of protection as they did for the original strain? The pandemic also exposed some CDC failures and weaknesses unrelated to politics. How to be Extra Cautious with Your Skin during Seasonal Transitions? She later became an assistant professor before being promoted to associate professor in 2007. 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. Dr. Walensky also has her eye trained on racial equity in health care within the ranks of C.D.C. Tens of millions have been infected. 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. 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. But veterans in public health said such changes are expected after a leadership change and have occurred before. Dr. Rochelle is a member of Boston COVID-19 Advisory Board. Thank you, Zeke. ", 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Today, Dr. Walensky will provide an update on the state of the pandemic and the Delta variant. 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. ", 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.". She started doing more research, including studies of ways to get more patients tested and treated for AIDS, even in the poorest countries. But if we just let the virus run free without mitigation strategies, such as masking, our hospitals will overflow and that would mean we would no longer be able to take care of the populations health across the board. The video, plus another video Walensky appears in, are part of an effort to help educate hospital employees about the coronavirus vaccines, according to Dr. Paul Biddinger, director of emergency preparedness for Mass General Brigham. I think we're still going to have, after we vaccinate 100 million Americans, we're going to have 200 million more that we're going to need to vaccinate.". Q Thank you all for doing this. "I want our kids back in camp," Walensky said, describing how her teenage son counts down the days to his summer camp. You feel healthy, you know people who have had COVID and are doing all right. 'I know what its like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. Give her a little time, he added. Younger unvaccinated people weve spoken to believe they will likely be fine if they get infected with coronavirus. And when we get enough information to make that decision, then that decision will be forthcoming. We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have low vaccination coverage because unvaccinated people are at risk. When the pandemic began, Dr. Walensky, 52, was chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital. The recent exits of two high-ranking agency officials within the C.D.C. So, if Walensky had a Wonder Woman superpower, it was using data to inform decisions and save lives. Her father, Edward Bersoff, was a mathematician and engineer at NASA; her mother, Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, was an executive at a technology company. She called out the drug company Gileads pricing of its preventive therapy for H.I.V. would no longer bend to political meddling. She reinstated diversity training, and has promoted two Black scientists into management positions. director, is working to restore trust in what once was the worlds premier public health agency. 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. I was like, 'No, no, it's the opposite. Washington, DC 20500, MR. ZIENTS: Good morning, and thanks for joining us. The love of my life for 25 years and counting @RWalensky has been nominated to lead @CDCgov at this critical moment. Under unrelenting pressure from the pandemic and the Trump administration, the atmosphere inside the agency devolved last year into ugly rivalries and turf wars, according to several staff scientists. Walensky took part in the video a few weeks before President-elect Joe Biden appointed her on December 7 to be his CDC chief when he takes office, and shes made few public comments since then, and declined to comment for this story. The job, he noted, has a steep learning curve. But right now Im scared., Her impassioned speech startled many people, perhaps none more than her husband. She ordered the hospital staff to wear masks before it became the national norm, and advised the mayor of her town and the governor on testing and prevention of Covid-19. 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. 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. 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. 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. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Each COVID-19 death is tragic. Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo (Pool/Reuters) The director of . Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, absolutely. Redfield made appearances, but he was often a third-tier speaker after remarks dominated by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and others. Last summer, after protests over the death of George Floyd, more than 1,200 C.D.C. How to Equip Yourself Before an MRI Scan? And are we seeing any breakthrough infections among more vulnerable people who have been vaccinated who might have been around younger people? Walensky is facing a historic challenge, and leading an agency where she's never worked. (404) 639-3286. The two announcements captured the challenge that will define Dr. Walenskys tenure at the C.D.C. We want to work closely with schools and employers to get their help, increasingly, in getting people vaccinated in schools and in workplaces. Health care workers in the US started receiving Pfizers coronavirus vaccine this week, and its expected they could get Modernas vaccine starting next week. 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. At Massachusetts General Hospital, where Walensky was the chief of infectious diseases, some of her many admirers now have T-shirts that read "Answer the Code" with her initials, RPW, beneath. Every person matters.