Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said she will begin her new job with a long list of tasks: helping states repair Covid-19 vaccination programs and persuading exhausted Americans to use masks and take other precautions.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Walensky said the agency will try to help people overcome doubts about Covid-19 vaccines and she has promised to increase public confidence in the CDC.
Dr. Walensky will take charge of the CDC on Wednesday, when a highly transmissible mutant, or variant, of the new coronavirus threatens to cause a new outbreak of infections in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign to contain the pandemic is starting slowly and surveys show that many people in the United States are hesitant to get vaccinated.
“This is an emergency,” said Dr. Walensky, as she prepared paperwork for her new job so she could start work immediately after the change in management. New presidents often wait weeks or months to appoint CDC directors.