Biden names more of his health people….
The CDC will have a more stronger on hands job under the Biden admin…
President-elect Joe Biden has selected Rochelle Walensky, the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
Walensky, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on AIDS and HIV, will be tasked with rebuilding a critical health agency that has been sidelined by the Trump administration amid a pandemic.
Walensky will replace Robert Redfield, who assumed the role of director in March 2018, and take a top role in helping the Biden administration curtail the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden is planning to announce Walensky along with a slate of top health officials this week, including Xavier Becerra as secretary of Health and Human Services, Jeff Zients as the Covid-19 coordinator and Vivek Murthy as surgeon general. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor at Yale who is an expert on health care inequality, will have a senior role focused on health disparities.
The Biden transition declined to comment on Sunday. Walesnky could not be reached for comment.
In the Biden administration, the CDC will take on a much larger and public role, with plans to revive regular media briefings and give a central role to career officials who have been pushed aside by President Donald Trump. Biden and his advisers have emphasized that they want to prioritize scientists over politics in responding to the pandemic.
On Friday, the CDC recommended for the first time that people wear masks at all times when they’re not home. That guidance echoes Biden’s call for a nationwide mask mandate, which numerous Republican governors have rejected.
The CDC will also play a critical role in managing the distribution of a Covid vaccine, an incredibly complex process that will be one of the largest immunization campaigns in U.S. history.
Health care leaders celebrated Walensky’s appointment after the news broke on Sunday night….
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