Dr. Rochelle Walensky has become one of the most well-known faces in America’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As the country’s director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) she has taken to the nightly news, Twitter and Facebook to inform the public about the challenges posed by the virus and the steps the US is taking to control it.
“One thing is clear,” Walensky tweeted on August 18: “While we are still learning how these vaccines perform over time and against emerging variants, the data show that getting vaccinated can keep you out of the hospital. Getting vaccinated can save your life.”
Standing tall at five feet and 11 inches, she has unabashedly defended the position of her organization. Last month, she directly addressed comments made by Fox News host Sean Hannity that “the science shows the vaccine will not necessarily protect you. It’s not protecting many people.” In an interview with MSNBC, she termed Hannity’s statement “to be false” and said that even if someone who is vaccinated happens to get coronavirus, “your case will be far milder than if you didn’t have the vaccine.”
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Walensky also tweeted a “shoutout” to the Atlanta Falcons for being the first NFL team to reach 100% vaccination. And she shares maps, videos and infographics educating the public and encouraging them to keep the COVID-19 rules.
Born in Massachusetts, Walensky did her undergraduate degree at Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her medical degree at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her Master of Public Health at Harvard School of Public Health.
Married to Dr. Loren D. Walensky, she is the mother of three sons. They live in Newton, Massachusetts, where they belong to Temple Emanuel.
She was working as the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and serving as a professor at Harvard Medical School, when then president-elect Joe Biden tapped her for the top CDC role.
In her acceptance speech, Walensky chose not only to address the pandemic but the “longstanding public health challenges of social and racial injustice and inequity that have demanded action for far too long.
“We must make up for potentially lost ground in areas like suicide, substance use disorder and overdose, chronic diseases, and global health initiatives,” she said, adding that “better, healthier days lie ahead.”
Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, a senior scholar in the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Healio: “She is a well accomplished, extremely intelligent and evidence-based infectious disease physician.”
The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association issued a statement after Walensky’s appointment, calling her “a gifted infectious diseases physician and leader” whose “contributions to research, policy and practice in understanding, responding to and controlling pandemic threats that include HIV, tuberculosis and now COVID-19 have informed global and domestic efforts that are critical to protecting Americans and advancing global health.”