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Born Rochelle Bersoff, Dr. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Md. This is a working mom whos always been working her tail off, her husband said. We only have about 33% of people over the age of 65 who've gotten that bivalent vaccine this season. Rochelle Walensky Religion Rochelle Walensky was born to a father called Edward Bersoff and a mother identified as Carol Bersoff-Bernstein. 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. Dr. Rochelle is a member of Boston COVID-19 Advisory Board. "I got called during a code," she says. She will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, 69, who came to the CDC with a similar resume as an outsider from academia. Lets go to Zeke Miller with AP. That was a big oversight.. But veterans in public health said such changes are expected after a leadership change and have occurred before. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? And today, I want to focus on the challenge of health misinformation thats affecting millions of Americans. "A vaccine may feel unnecessary. I just was wondering if you guys could share a little bit more detail on the current state of thinking around boosters. 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. Retrospectively, when you look at the negative reaction of so many people, so many organizations, you have to come to the conclusion that it could have been done better, he said. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please enable JavaScript to use this feature. NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Center for Disease Prevention and Control Director Rochelle Walensky about the "tripledemic.". 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. Receive the latest news and breaking updates, straight from our newsroom to your inbox. Walensky's family has a tradition of service, including a grandfather who served in World War II and rose to be a brigadier general. Americans everywhere are going to be gathering with their families and other loved ones to celebrate the holidays. She joined MGH in 2000 as a graduate assistant at the medical walk-in unit. Date Filed Document Text; March 2, 2023: Filing 3 Notice to File Rule 7.1 Disclosure Statement. 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. You have JavaScript disabled. A Warner Bros. 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. They said the goal date for a decision is January 2022. So weve secured enough vaccine supply. Accuracy and availability may vary. ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Thanks so much for having me, Ailsa. And Dr. Murthy will discuss vaccine confidence with a focus on combatting misinformation and disinformation. : 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. "They have been diminished," she said. Dr. Walensky was known as a tough-minded advocate for people with AIDS. The most recent instance, when Dr. Walensky announced that vaccinated people could go mask-free indoors, was supported by the latest research, scientists said. "I know all too well. 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. 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. C.D.C. 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. Some of its advice had been twisted by the Trump administration, and her message was clear: The C.D.C. Whats different now is the speed and scale at which health misinformation is spreading. "At one point, one of my sons said, 'You know, Dad, we should just open a florist shop at this point," says Rochelle Walensky's husband, Dr. Loren Walensky. Washington, DC 20500, MR. ZIENTS: Good morning, and thanks for joining us. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh). The two announcements captured the challenge that will define Dr. Walenskys tenure at the C.D.C. Post-Workout Nutrition Advice to Make the Most of Your Sweat Session! For Immediate Release: Friday, June 4, 2021. Younger unvaccinated people weve spoken to believe they will likely be fine if they get infected with coronavirus. The love of my life for 25 years and counting @RWalensky has been nominated to lead @CDCgov at this critical moment. Tenants . 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. DR. WALENSKY: Yeah, absolutely. The test kit problem was tied to laboratory contamination at the agencys Atlanta headquarters a sign of sloppiness. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. 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. ZIENTS: Please.SURGEON GENERAL MURTHY: on thought there? [1] Next question. And this type of localized, person-to-person approach takes some time, but it is working.In the past 10 days, 5 million Americans have rolled up their sleeves to get a shot in their arms, and millions more Americans will get vaccinated across the summer months.Importantly, states with the highest case rates are seeing their vaccination rates go up. ZIENTS: Dr. Walensky, do you want to take the second question? But C.D.C. And from the moment Walensky stepped up to lead the CDC, she has promised to keep telling the truth. We'll open the windows for people, increase ventilation if we can. Q Hi, and thanks for taking my question. Like, are we past the peak at this point? In January, shown in the middle of the slide, we were averaging nearly 200,000 cases per day. 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. Walensky has said one of her top priorities will be to improve the CDCs communications with the public to rebuild trust. Any decision about opening international travel will be guided by our public health and medical experts. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. 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. Stay home when you're sick. Her father, Edward Bersoff, was a mathematician and engineer at NASA; her mother, Carol Bersoff-Bernstein, was an executive at a. 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. 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. How to be Extra Cautious with Your Skin during Seasonal Transitions? I'm joined today by the head of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, to help us make sense of the latest virus surge and what . Do you agree with that guidance? ". Is That Enough? She served on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted research on vaccine delivery and strategies to reach underserved communities. 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.. Rochelle is 6 feet tall. 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. director than my previous 18 predecessors, and sort of a different kind of character in public health.. 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? The pandemic also exposed some CDC failures and weaknesses unrelated to politics. Give her a little time, he added. White House officials also took steps to try to control the CDCs scientific reports and the guidance on its website. Shes clear, articulate and she can deliver messages with a smile. Get to know Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Biden's CDC director pick. Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden. President Biden had promised that the C.D.C. 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. We encourage that people get vaccinated on schedule three or four weeks after your first dose. Rochelle Walensky now makes the laws. 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." And so that's really the goal. 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 tussled with pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for H.I.V. The agencys handling of the COVID-19 outbreak began in a similar way. Walensky announced today that she has decided to nationalize America's rental properties, millions and millions of them from Maine to California. It was the mid-'90s, and the AIDS epidemic was still raging. I literally cried the night that I found out that Rochelle was going to be C.D.C. WALENSKY: And maybe MR. 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 My kids jumped up. Like the federal government was actively trying to mess things up.". 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. Even when it's bad news. "I want our kids back in camp," Walensky said, describing how her teenage son counts down the days to his summer camp. It's amazing. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. MODERATOR: Kaitlan Collins at CNN. Walensky declined to give a timeline on Tuesday on when the CDC will release new guidance for schools after publishing information over the weekend suggesting schools should not keep masking policies in place until the end of this school year. Redfield made appearances, but he was often a third-tier speaker after remarks dominated by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and others. Today, Dr. Walensky will provide an update on the state of the pandemic and the Delta variant. The respiratory virus RSV has been surging for weeks, sending kids to emergency rooms. 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. Loren Walensky recalls coming home one day to find her sitting at the kitchen table working on extremely complex math. I have heard from my colleagues in the hospital that some of the nurses and health care workers are unwilling to be vaccinated because they have heard that its going to affect their fertility and there are some other myths that are floating around, Carol Hayes, a nurse midwife whos a liaison representative to ACIP, said at the meeting. Every person matters. I know thats a hard sell, but I think its a smart sell. Even before the surveys were rolled out in December 2020 after the first vaccines were authorized, the CDC knew that myocarditisa form of heart . "And I think our entire division would lie down in traffic for her.". 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. They married in 1995 and have three sons. treatments. 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. He wants his life back," she told lawmakers. 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. WALENSKY: Good morning. She is the daughter of Carol Bersoff-Bernstein and Edward H. Bersoff. Some felt betrayed by agency leaders who did not speak out publicly against the political interference. And we, as was mentioned in several briefings that weve had, are seeing increment in our own country to the point of now having more than 50 percent dominance and, in some areas of the country, greater than 70 percent.That is the sobering news, but take a look at whats going on worldwide with hospitalizations. 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 youre talking about young people, specifically, getting hospitalized, we are seeing younger people hospitalized right now, relatively speaking to a more extent than we were before. Dr. Kenneth Freedberg was standing at his wife's bedside in a Boston hospital's intensive care unit when an . He said, 'What's wrong, what's wrong, is everything OK?' ", Biden Names Massachusetts Doctor To Lead CDC, HHS Spokesperson Takes Leave of Absence After Disparaging Government Scientists, House Oversight Committee Chair: Testimony Points To Political Interference At CDC, Coronavirus Vaccine Q&A: Variants, Side Effects, And More, CDC Offers Clearest Guidance Yet For Reopening Schools, If Schools Follow CDC Guidance, Biden's Reopening Goals Could Be Hard To Reach, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But its also going to take each one of us, you know, as Americans across this country, looking to our family and our friends and asking them if they are vaccinated.You know, this vaccination campaign is going to move, in part, driven by trusted relationships. 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. WALENSKY: And maybe Ill just add: When we look at the age demographics of people being hospitalized now, we are seeing them go up in all age demographics, exactly as Dr. Fauci noted, differently for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Biden unveils health team that will lead pandemic response. The job, he noted, has a steep learning curve. This year, it got to zero and I told him he wasn't going.". 3 Best Diets For Overall Well-Being In 2023. There are two things happening at the same time, she said. Connect to the World Family Tree to find out, Walenski, Walenski, Walenski, Prominent Scientists: (i) Exact Sciences & Natural Sciences, Get to know Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Biden's CDC director pick, Parents are Carol Bersoff-Bernstein and Edward H. Bersoff. And then finally and really important is that - and my family knows this. She saw many people . Rochelle holds an American nationality and belongs to the white ethnicity. Based on that, you could make a reasonable assumption that the rate of transmissibility from the asymptomatic vaccinated person to an uninfected person would be less likely than if the person was unvaccinated. 'I know what its like when you are there, holding their hands, as they look in your eye and they slip away. 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. However, if you look at the trend on the far righthand part of that slide, theres that uptick, which somehow was reflecting what Dr. Walensky just told you about the slight uptick that were seeing in hospitalizations in our own country. 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.". The C.D.C. Like, will you be personally masking up at the supermarket or just avoiding large gatherings in general? She is absolutely fearless in doing what is the correct thing, with zero concern for the political ramifications for herself.. "But we sort of face every day with the hope and the vision that what we will be faced with, we can tackle.". She is involved in a medical discussion on the best strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve herd immunity. Within weeks, the agency was pushed off stage. Stay up to date with everything Boston. Pilates: The CelebrityApproved Workout That Can Help You Stay Lean, Long, and Lithe! You know, this strategy as we think, going forward, about how to get the rest of the country vaccinated has got to involve everyone. Full Biography Director Speaker Request Meet Our Leadership Team Spotlight Jim Pirkle, MD, PhD, serves as ADLSS and OLSS Director. "He's young and fit and in the prime of his life. 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. On her first day as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January, Dr. Rochelle Walensky ordered a review of all Covid-related guidance on the agencys website. Mistrust of the coronavirus vaccine was a major topic of discussion at an ACIP meeting last week.