Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Paula Walensky is the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on AIDS and HIV. She has been selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Biden administration.

About Rochelle Walensky in brief

Summary Rochelle WalenskyRochelle Paula Walensky is the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an expert on AIDS and HIV. She has been selected to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Biden administration, replacing Robert R. Redfield. A director of the CDC does not require Senate confirmation to take office.

Doctors and public health experts widely praised the choice. The Biden transition announced Walenski’s presumptive nomination as CDC director on December 7, 2020. She says that if we just let the virus run free without mitigation strategies, such as masking, our hospitals will overflow and that would mean we would no longer be able to take care of the population’s health.