{"id":224016,"date":"2023-03-31T23:19:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T03:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=224016"},"modified":"2023-04-01T01:26:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T05:26:34","slug":"cdc-director-rochelle-walensky-visits-sph","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2023\/cdc-director-rochelle-walensky-visits-sph\/","title":{"rendered":"CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Visits SPH"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-default has-media has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2560\" height=\"1630\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-scaled.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"Rochelle Walensky speaks with Dean Galea\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-636x405.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-1024x652.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-768x489.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-1536x978.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-2048x1304.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-755x481.jpg 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-1570x1000.jpg 1570w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-900x573.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-1920x1223.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2023\/03\/walensky-PHC-4C4A9309-1-1200x764.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">SPH Dean Sandro Galea speaks with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky at the School of Public Health on Thursday, March 30.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">cdc<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t&#8216;Our Job Is Successful When Nobody Hears About Public Health&#8217;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control &amp; Prevention, discussed the\u00a0agency&#8217;s pandemic mistakes\u00a0and successes during\u00a0a Public Health Conversation on March 30.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar js-block-editorial-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">March 31, 2023<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/jillian-mckoy\/\">Jillian McKoy<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>When President Biden selected\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/about\/leadership\/director.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rochelle Walensky<\/a> to take the reins of the US Centers for Disease Control &amp; Prevention (CDC), the former chief of division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School professor of medicine asserted in her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/msmagazine.com\/2020\/12\/14\/dr-rochelle-walensky-cdc-director-biden-harris-cabinet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nomination speech<\/a> that \u201cleading with science is the only way to deliver breakthroughs, to deliver hope, and to bring our nation back to full strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a recent visit to the School of Public Health, Walensky said she stands by that statement\u2014with one caveat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI assumed, which was not appropriate, that the people who were listening understood that science would change,\u201d she said during a wide-ranging&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/conversations\/infectious-disease\/a-conversation-with-rochelle-walensky\/\">Public Health Conversation<\/a> moderated by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/profile\/sandro-galea\/\">Sandro Galea<\/a>, dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, on Thursday, March 30. \u201cScientists and academics understand that, but not everybody understands that. [I] should have said, \u2018science\u2014and it will change,\u2019 or \u2018science\u2014for now, and we will update you and give you more information as we have it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walensky reflected on the agency\u2019s oft-criticized COVID-19 communication missteps, as well as a number of other topics, in front of more than 1,100 people who attended the hybrid-format event in Hiebert Lounge and on Zoom.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discussion spanned the public health gamut, exploring the agency\u2019s mistakes, successes, and lessons learned during the first pandemic in the age of digital media, and identifying pathways for the 76-year-old CDC\u2014and broader health and science fields\u2014to regain the trust of the American people, develop clear and effective messaging, and confront other urgent national crises such as climate change, gun violence, and maternal mortality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Confronting the rampant misinformation on social media is difficult, but necessary, she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe like that kind of active discussion and disagreement.\u201dsaid Walensky. \u201cBut at the same time it&#8217;s not always used for productive purposes. It&#8217;s a really interesting, but really difficult space right now for social media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the course of the pandemic, the CDC has adjusted the way it develops certain recommendations, currently applying a more layered strategy that \u201ccan apply to Manhattan, and tribal country, and Guam, and rural Idaho,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to provide options for what you can do in your place when you have these resources, and this capacity, and this sort of political will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDo you place value on your economy being open over your risk of health?\u201d Galea asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose are values judgments, and we don&#8217;t get to decide how everybody else places those values\u2014and at that intersection is politics,\u201d Walensky replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDo we have a role to play in shaping values?\u201d Galea followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think we have a role to play in helping to understand risk [and provide] accurate science to help shape those values,\u201d she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Noting that she inherited a \u201cfrail public health infrastructure,\u201d Walensky stressed that evaluating and improving the systems and processes within which the agency collects, analyzes, and disseminates public health data will be critical to the CDC\u2019s future\u2014a future that will continue to encounter numerous infectious diseases, she predicted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These challenges necessitate faster production of data without compromising the accuracy and clarity of information, she said. Strengthening the agency\u2019s laboratory infrastructure, modernizing data systems, and supporting data analytics training will improve monitoring capabilities such as wastewater and genomic surveillance. And all of this work must be done through an equity lens, aiming to close racial and socioeconomic gaps in access to adequate healthcare and community resources.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walensky also touted several public health accomplishments during her tenure, such as the agency\u2019s successful efforts to publish the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/poxvirus\/mpox\/cases-data\/technical-report.html\">technical briefs<\/a> worldwide on the performance of the Mpox vaccine, following the rapid and unexpected&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/poxvirus\/mpox\/response\/2022\/index.html\">spread of the Mpox virus<\/a> across the US last year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other public health successes since she took the helm at the CDC, the agency formally named\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/media\/releases\/2021\/s0408-racism-health.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">racism<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/27\/health\/cdc-gun-research-walensky\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">firearm violence<\/a> public health issues, established the agency\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/forecast-outbreak-analytics\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics<\/a>, and administered more than 673 million vaccines in the last 2.5 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walensky noted that some of the successes were small and mostly unheralded, such as when US government officials dropped test kits from a helicopter to stranded passengers aboard the luxury Diamond Princess cruise ship during the first COVID wave.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And during last year\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/allieswelcome\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Operation Allies Welcome<\/a>, the federal government\u00a0coordinated\u00a0support to resettle vulnerable Afghans and welcomed 80,000 people into the US in\u00a0August 2022, she said. Unknown to many outside of the agency, there were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/afghan-refugees-security-risks\/2021\/09\/09\/a0c5d1ac-1194-11ec-a511-cb913c7e5ba0_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">44 active measles<\/a> cases and\u00a014 active mumps cases,\u00a0and neither disease spread to the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur job is successful when nobody hears about public health,\u201d Walensky said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Galea also selected several questions that audience submitted electronically. In responding to a question about the CDC\u2019s role in developing policies to curb gun violence\u2014and as the nation continues to reel from the latest mass school shooting, which took the lives of three children and three adults in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2023\/03\/31\/nashville-shooting-latest-news-covenant-school-updates\/70066527007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nashville, Tenn.<\/a>\u2014Walensky made an appeal for unity on an issue that continues to destroy families in every corner of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First acknowledging the Nashville tragedy as a parent, she said the administration has expanded research on firearm violence prevention, but noted the additional need to collect data and address firearm injuries, and the lasting effects of gun violence among shooting survivors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe do have to come to terms on what we agree on across the aisle because we we have to get to \u2018yes,\u2019 Walensky said. \u201cCan we agree for firearm owners and [non-firearm owners] that we do not want to have loved ones die unnecessarily of a firearm death? Let&#8217;s just agree on that. I&#8217;ve been to a firearm training facility where they were teaching eight-year-olds to shoot. What is it that you should also be teaching your eight-year-olds about safe storage\u2014about how we engage in prevention of community-based violence? Let&#8217;s get everybody to the table so that we can agree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the full conversation with Rochelle Walensky below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"responsive-video responsive-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Conversation with Rochelle Walensky\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tzq1_nUkXb8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When President Biden selected\u00a0Rochelle Walensky to take the reins of the US Centers for Disease Control &amp; Prevention (CDC), the former chief of division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School professor of medicine asserted in her\u00a0nomination speech that \u201cleading with science is the only way to deliver breakthroughs, to deliver [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":224021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"cdc","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[2551,3243,2178,3649,3380,2283],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3526,3531,3541],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/224016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224016"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/224016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224081,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/224016\/revisions\/224081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=224016"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=224016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}