Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Paula Walensky (née Bersoff; born April 5, 1969) is an American physician-scientist who is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.[1] Prior to her appointment at the CDC, she was the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Walensky is an expert on HIV/AIDS. [2]

Rochelle Walensky
Official portrait, 2021
19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Assumed office
January 20, 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
DeputyAnne Schuchat
Debra Houry (acting)
Preceded byRobert Redfield
Personal details
Born
Rochelle Paula Bersoff

(1969-04-05) April 5, 1969
Peabody, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1995)​
Children3
Parent(s)Edward H. Bersoff (father)
EducationWashington University in St. Louis (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Harvard University (MPH)

Early life and education

Walensky was born Rochelle Paula Bersoff in Peabody, Massachusetts,[3] to Edward Bersoff and Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, a Jewish family.[4] She was raised in Potomac, Maryland.[5][6]

In 1991, Walensky received a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Washington University in St. Louis.[6] In 1995, she received an M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. From 1995 to 1998, she trained in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Walensky then became a fellow in the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program. In 2001, she earned an MPH in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health.[7]

Academic career

Walensky had been on the faculty of Harvard Medical School since 2001, first as an instructor, then as a professor.[8] Walensky was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012-2020, and served as chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2017-2020. She served on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities. Walensky has worked to improve HIV screening and care in South Africa, led health policy initiatives, and researched clinical trial design and evaluation in a variety of settings.[9]

Walensky was chair of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health from 2014 to 2015 and has served as a member of the US Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents since 2011.[10] She serves on the board of directors of Mass General Brigham.[11] She has been co-director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital since 2011.[10]

COVID-19

In a paper published in Health Affairs in November 2020, Walensky and her co-authors showed that the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine will be strongly affected by:

  • The speed with which the vaccine is produced and administered. Some of the potential vaccines have logistical challenges including the need for ultra-cold storage or requiring two doses.
  • The willingness of people to be vaccinated.
  • The pandemic's severity when the vaccine is introduced.[12]

CDC Director

The Biden transition announced Walensky's presumptive appointment as CDC director on December 7, 2020.[13] Doctors and public health experts widely praised the choice.[14] As the position of director of the CDC does not require Senate confirmation to take office,[15] Walensky's tenure at the CDC began on January 20, 2021.

On August 3, 2021, Walensky instituted a 60-day extension of a federal COVID-related ban, which had just expired, on landlords evicting their tenants. The extended ban applied only to "counties experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels", but under the criteria of the ban this covered an area holding 90% of the U.S. population.[16] On August 26, as was widely expected,[17] the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the extension as unconstitutional, ruling that only the U.S. Congress had the authority to issue such a moratorium.[18]

As the pandemic entered the Omicron wave, Walensky has acknowledged that officials on the CDC response team are burned out[19] and tried to reassign workers. However, just months [before Omicron], Walensky and other top officials had a plan to dissolve large parts of the pandemic response team, which has more than 1,500 staffers, & reassign members to their original posts. Walensky shelved the plan with the emergence of Omicron as cases began to tick up across the U.S.,[19] bringing morale lower than ever at the CDC. However, Ashish Jha says, "Dr. Walensky inherited a really messy organization with some real strengths but also a lot of problems.”[19]

During a January 26, 2022 news conference about the rise of the Omicron variant and high hospitalization rates, Dr. Walensky said the nation should not ease up on COVID-19 safety protocols, saying, "Milder does not mean mild and we cannot look past the strain on our health systems and substantial number of deaths." She also said, "It’s important to remember we’re still facing a high overall burden of disease."[20]

Response to criticism

In a January 18, 2022 interview with The Boston Globe, Walensky defended her first year at the CDC describing her critics as "naysayers" who have helped sow the public confusion she has been accused of creating and pointing out that many Americans are still not following the most basic guidance on COVID-19 prevention. She also said, "We’re making decisions in imperfect times, sometimes without all the data that we would like to make them.” Walensky acknowledged she is now working with a messaging coach and she is listening to her critics. She noted that better communication is not always possible saying, "Some of this is not based on the messaging because, 'Wear a mask' is about as crystal clear as you could be. And still we have much of America not doing it. So some of the really easy stuff is not being followed, and some of the harder stuff is actually complicated science."[21]

Personal life

Walensky is married to Loren D. Walensky, also a physician-scientist. They have three sons.[22] They are Jewish and members of Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts.[23]

Selected works and publications

References
  1. CDC (January 20, 2021). "New CDC Director". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  2. Pager, Tyler (December 6, 2020). "To rebuild CDC, Biden picks Rochelle Walensky". Politico. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  3. "Mass. General Hospital's Rochelle Walensky to run CDC". December 7, 2020.
  4. "Loren Walensky engaged to marry Rochelle Bersoff" (PDF). The Item of Millburn and Short Hills. October 20, 1994. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  5. "Mass General's Walensky to lead CDC". Jewish Journal. December 10, 2020. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  6. April 30, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson / Published; 2021 (April 30, 2021). "A conversation with CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky". The Hub. Retrieved July 19, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "Dr. Rochelle Walensky – Mass General Brigham Infectious Diseases Fellowship". Harvard Medical School. Archived from the original on October 15, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  8. "Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH" (PDF). United States House of Representatives. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  9. CDC (January 20, 2021). "CDC Director". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 6, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. "Rochelle Walensky". DCP-3 Disease Control Priorities. University of Washington. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  11. "Leadership, MassGeneral Brigham". Archived from the original on October 25, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  12. Massachusetts General Hospital (November 19, 2020). "COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness to be affected heavily by infrastructure, public attitudes". EurekAlert. AAAS. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  13. "President-elect Joe Biden Announces Key Members of Health Team". Biden transition. December 7, 2020. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  14. Dwyer, Dialynn (December 7, 2020). "How doctors are reacting to Biden picking Rochelle Walensky to head CDC". Boston.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  15. McKay, Betsy (December 7, 2020). "Biden to Select Rochelle Walensky to Lead the CDC". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  16. KATY O'DONNELL, LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ and HEATHER CAYGLE (August 3, 2021). "CDC announces new eviction ban, despite Supreme Court threat". Politico.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  17. Jacobson, Louis (August 3, 2021). "Nancy Pelosi's dubious claim about who can extend the eviction moratorium". Politifact.
  18. Williams, Pete (August 26, 2021). "Supreme Court blocks Biden administration's eviction moratorium". NBC News.
  19. "Walensky faces CDC burnout as pandemic enters third year". Politico. January 15, 2022.
  20. Bursztynsky, Jessica (January 26, 2022). "CDC director says 'milder doesn't mean mild' as Covid hospitalizations reach record highs". CNBC. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  21. Bridgood, Jess (January 19, 2022). "Dr. Rochelle Walensky defends her CDC tenure: 'We're making decisions in imperfect times'". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  22. "Rochelle Walensky, MD". World Medical Innovation Forum. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
  23. Tenorio, Rich (April 8, 2020). "'It's a little bit like being in a tunnel looking at an oncoming train'". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
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