“It makes no sense for her to step down now, when she was just starting to do the hard work of reforming the agency,” said Celine Gounder, an infectious-disease specialist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “It’s odd to have gone through the process of identifying the problems and begin executing on a vision, and then not be able to finish the job.”
“It feels like there’s such desperation to put the pandemic behind us, and that includes those who led us through those darkest days,” Gounder said.
White House officials had prepared for Walensky’s potential departure beginning last year, sounding out interest in leading the CDC from public health experts, according to three people with knowledge of those informal talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Former New York City health commissioner Dave A. Chokshi, former North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen and California health secretary Mark Ghaly were among the officials approached by the administration. Chokshi and Cohen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did a California health department spokesperson.
Walensky announced her departure Friday during an all-staff meeting, crying as she finished her remarks, according to employees who tuned in.
“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. I took on this role 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,” Walensky wrote in an email to staff, touting the administration of hundreds of millions of vaccines. “In the process, we safely opened schools and businesses, saved and improved lives, and protected the country and the world from the greatest infectious-disease threat we have seen in over 100 years.”
Walensky wrote that she had “mixed emotions” about the decision but did not spell out why she was stepping down. Senior agency leaders said Walensky informed them of her departure only 30 minutes before the all-staff meeting.
The White House sent out a statement from President Biden praising her “steadfast and unwavering focus on the health of every American.”
“As Director of the CDC, she led a complex organization on the front lines of a once-in-a-generation pandemic with honesty and integrity,” Biden said. “She marshaled our finest scientists and public health experts to turn the tide on the urgent crises we’ve faced. Dr. Walensky leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans.”
Walensky began a reorganization last year designed to make the 13,000-person Atlanta-based agency more nimble and accountable and improve communications with the public. She established a center for forecasting and outbreak analytics to provide better, faster information about what was likely to happen next in the public health emergency and in future outbreaks. She took steps to modernize data and improve the public health workforce.
Some public health leaders on Friday said they were blindsided by Walensky’s resignation because the CDC director had continued to discuss plans for months- and years-long changes to her agency that she indicated she intended to oversee.
CDC officials say those changes are going forward. The reorganization expanded the size of the director’s staff and capabilities, one official said. “From a leadership perspective, whoever the next director is, they’re going to come into a much better situation,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk about pending personnel decisions.
The administration has not announced a transition plan. A new director could be chosen by July 1, or someone could be tapped to be acting director. Day-to-day leadership of the CDC is likely to fall to senior officials: Nirav Shah, the former top health official in Maine and Illinois, who joined CDC as its principal deputy director earlier this year; Sherri Berger, acting chief strategy officer and a CDC veteran; and Debra Houry, chief medical officer, another longtime official.
Walensky’s two-year tenure was marked by tensions with Republicans, who have launched probes into whether the CDC coordinated its school reopening guidance with teachers’ unions and on Friday pressed Walensky for information about the agency’s reorganization. Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized the agency’s mixed messaging on when to wear masks, isolate and take other precautions.
Jeff Zients, White House chief of staff, had developed frustrations with Walensky and her communication style during his tenure as covid coordinator in 2021 and in early 2022, according to current and former White House officials. They said Walensky went off-script during a March 2021 covid briefing when she spoke of a feeling of “impending doom” about a potential covid surge.
Zients on Friday described the CDC director as “exactly who we needed in the trenches with us.”
Walensky’s departure will create another hole in the most senior ranks of the nation’s health leadership, with White House covid coordinator Ashish Jha set to leave this month, former infectious-disease director Anthony S. Fauci recently retired and no confirmed head of the National Institutes of Health. The White House also has yet to name a director for its new pandemic response office, which is set to inherit some pandemic-preparedness work after the White House covid response team disbands this month. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate health panel, this week vowed that future nominees to lead CDC and other health agencies must commit to an agenda of drug-price cuts.
“Her departure brings attention back to the key issues that we spotlighted in our analysis, which is that CDC is in peril,” said J. Stephen Morrison, who leads global health policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and recently co-chaired a working group on how to improve CDCs operations and pandemic response. “It’s had a decline in its performance and public trust — stemming from poor decision-making, deep structural weaknesses and external assault.”
Before joining the CDC in January 2021, Walensky headed the infectious-disease division at Massachusetts General Hospital and taught at Harvard Medical School.