Walensky resigns as C.D.C. Director

In an announcement on Friday, the embattled agency's director said she would step down in June. "We made this world a safer place," she said.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will step down on June 30, she announced Friday, capping a tumultuous tenure at the nation's top public health agency as she struggled to rein in the Covid-19 pandemic, the greatest threat to American well-being in decades.

His departure comes as the administration faces major vacancies in its Covid-19 response team. White House Covid-19 coordinator Dr Ashish Jha plans to leave his post this month, along with other key officials including Dr Nahid Bhadelia, White House adviser on the global response. A new pandemic office in the White House has no chief or staff.

The administration plans to end the public health emergency on May 11 , shutting down major programs — like access to free testing — that had helped sustain Americans during the worst days of the pandemic.

But the virus n has not disappeared. It still kills about 1,000 Americans every week and hospitalizes even more. The leadership vacuum comes at a precarious time.

During an agency-wide meeting, Dr. Walensky admitted to having mixed emotions about of her decision and burst into tears, according to people who had been on a conference call with her.

"I took on this role in order to leave behind the dark days of the pandemic and to move the C.D.C. — and public health — to a much better and more trusted place,” she said in a subsequent email to agency staff.

Dr. Walensky did not respond to a request for comment Senior administration officials and outside experts said Dr. Walensky struggled with a leadership structure unwieldy at the Department of Health and Human Services, of which the C.D.C. is a part.The agency's relationship with the White House was at times strained, as its advice to the public sometimes seemed confusing or contradictory.

A person familiar with his thinking said Dr. Walensky had also grown tired of harassment from members of the public unhappy with pandemic-related restrictions and long commutes between C.D.C. in Atlanta and his home in Massachusetts.

Andy Slavitt, a key adviser to the 2021 White House Covid-19 team, praised Dr. Walensky to do a job that is "easy to criticize and hard to do".

"You show up in a state of emergency with a specific job to do", a- he added. “It's almost like a mission, with a beginning and an end. Even if she was running an agency, running an agency in wartime is different from running an agency in peacetime. and some expressed disappointment that she was leaving.

"I think it's a loss for the C.D.C. and for the nation," said Dr. Megan Ranney , assistant dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. "I know it hasn't been easy, not just because of Covid but because of the politicization of science."

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Dr. Ranney said she received hate mail and personal attacks, but what she experienced was "just the tip of the iceberg" compared how Dr. Walensky had been treated.

Dr. Celine Gounder, a former Biden administration adviser who has known Dr. Walensky since 2004, said: "His departure signals to me that the C.D.C. is more broken and the federal government's commitment to public health is even weaker than I thought. Walensky grew up in Potomac, Maryland, in a family of respected scientists. She trained in medicine at Johns Hopkins University and in 2001 joined the faculty at Harvard, where she earned a reputation as a rigorous researcher and generous mentor.

Before it mandate as C.D.C. director, Dr. Walensky led the division of infectious diseases at Ma...