President-Elect Biden Selects Mass. General Hospital Doctor To Run CDC

President-elect Joe Biden has reportedly selected a Massachusetts General Hospital doctor to lead the response to COVID-19.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky will be named as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WCVB reports. Dr. Walensky currently serves as the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a chair of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council.

“I began my medical career at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and I've spent my life ever since working to research, treat and combat infectious diseases,” Dr. Walensky said via WCVB. “I'm honored to be called to lead the brilliant team at the CDC. We are ready to combat this virus with science and facts.”

Dr. Walensky will be among several additions to the Biden administration's health team, which was announced on Monday (December 7,) according to WCVB.

“This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced -- getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives and back to their loved ones," Biden said via WCVB.

Dr. Walensky will succeed Dr. Robert Redfield, who currently serves as the director of the CDC. Her upcoming role will not need confirmation from the United States Senate.

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