OAN’s Geraldyn Berry
12:00 PM – Friday, May 5, 2023
President Joe Biden has announced that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, 54, will be leaving the agency.
The White House confirmed that the director would be officially leaving at the end of June as she had reached her goal of “leaving behind the dark days of the pandemic and moving CDC — and public health — forward into a much better and more trusted place.”
It was reported that Walensky sent her resignation to Biden in a letter where she expressed “mixed feelings” about the decision
“The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director,” Walensky said. “In the process, we saved and improved lives and protected the country and the world from the greatest infectious disease threat we have seen in over 100 years,”
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that COVID-19 was no longer a worldwide public health emergency. Biden has said that he will not be renewing the public health emergency, which is set to expire on May 11th, and he ended the COVID-19 national emergency on April 10th.
Biden attested that Walensky is leaving “CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans.” According to the President, while on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, she skillfully oversaw a complicated organization.
“We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her the best in her next chapter,” Biden said.
The White House has not stated as to why the director was leaving the agency. An interim director has not yet been named.
Walensky has held the role of director of the CDC since President Joe Biden came into office in January 2021.
Her departure comes a few days after a 39-year-old CDC employee, Amy St. Pierre, was shot and killed in a shooting in midtown Atlanta on Wednesday.
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