Dr. Mandy Cohen speaks at a press conference at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, November 10, 2021.
Bryan Anderson | AP
President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would appoint Dr. Mandy Cohen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cohen served as head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services during the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously, she helped implement the Inexpensive Care Act programs as a senior officer at the federal Medicare and Medicaid Services Centers.
Cohen is an internal medicine physician.
“Dr. Cohen is one in all the top physicians and health leaders in the country with a track record of leading large and complicated organizations and a proven track record of protecting the health and safety of Americans,” Biden said in a Friday statement.
CDC directors don’t currently require Senate approval, although this can change in January 2025 due to recent laws passed by Congress.
Cohen’s appointment comes as the U.S. federal health leadership is in a transitional period following the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency last month.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the current director of the CDC, is stepping down at the end of this month. She led the CDC through the launch of the Covid vaccine in addition to Covid delta waves and omicrons. Walensky cited the end of the Covid emergency in her letter of resignation to Biden.
Cohen will take over the CDC, which is undergoing restructuring, to respond to criticism that the agency has been too slow during the pandemic and infrequently provided health advice that has confused the public.
But the CDC is not the only health agency undergoing changes.
Dr. Ashish Jha left the White House earlier this month after leading the Covid Task Force for greater than a yr.
Biden recently nominated Dr. Monica Bertagnolli run the National Institutes of Health. He’s currently the head of the National Cancer Institute. NIH has no Senate-approved leader as of December 2021.
said Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health Committee Washington Post earlier this week that he would oppose Bertagnolli’s nomination until the president adopts a transparent strategy to lower drug prices.