The official CDC government website dropped a press release today announcing Rochelle Walensky’s departure. It reads:
“CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced today her intent to depart the agency at the end of June. Walensky has led CDC through a transition to greater normalcy across the country, after two years of COVID-19 related closures and waves of dangerous, new virus variants. She also launched Moving Forward – a wide-ranging set of reforms designed to strengthen CDC communications and response operations. Walensky described this moment for the agency and the country in a letter to President Joe Biden”
“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 wrote. “I took on this role, at your request, with the 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.
“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.”
President Joe Biden also weighed in on this matter:
JUST IN – CDC director Rochelle Walensky is stepping down. pic.twitter.com/ozKBi2FEZ9
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) May 5, 2023
Although Joe Biden reveres her service to the government, many do not feel the same admiration. Millions of Americans were unimpressed with this moment from 2021 that circulates the internet often:
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: “Our data from the CDC today suggest that vaccinated people do not carry the virus.” pic.twitter.com/9W1SHecSEm
— The Recount (@therecount) March 30, 2021
She has recently defended this statement saying “at the time it was” correct based on their understanding of the wild virus:
Rochelle Walensky defends her statement that "vaccinated people do not carry the virus, they do not get sick."
"We've had an evolution of the science and an evolution of the virus… That statement is no longer correct."pic.twitter.com/6l11xaT7cw
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 19, 2023
She once said she thinks they had “too little caution & too much optimism” in regards to jumping the gun on the celebration over vaccine transmission efficacy:
Strikingly frank answer from CDC director Walensky on them being too bullish on vaccines early on
“Nobody said ‘waning’ when this vaccine is going to work, ‘oh well maybe it’ll wear off.’ Nobody said ‘well, what if…it’s not as potent against the next variant’”
H/t @adamcancryn pic.twitter.com/yPj2VKKfj4— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 4, 2022
Who will the next CDC Director be? Will they do a better job? Time will tell.