Why It Matters: Dr. Cohen will oversee the CDC’s response to public health crises.
The appointment does not require Senate confirmation, meaning Dr. Cohen may lead the CDC when Dr. Walensky comes down. Congress recently passed legislation requiring the agency’s director to be confirmed, but the provision does not go into effect until 2025.
In his own statement on Friday, Dr. Dr. Walensky Cohen is “perfectly suited to lead the CDC as it moves forward by building on the lessons learned from Covid-19.”
The Biden administration allowed the federal Covid public health emergency declaration to lapse in May. Dr. Cohen will oversee the CDC’s recently revamped efforts to track the coronavirus, including in wastewater. He is also responsible for a wide range of public health crises handled by the agency’s centers, including other outbreaks of infectious disease and opioid use.
The CDC is facing declining public trust as the nation recovers from a pandemic in which the agency botched early efforts to test Americans, allowed political interference in its scientific literature and delivered what it said of health experts confused guidance on testing, masking and understanding the spread of the virus.
Dr. Cohen is said to be the leading candidate on a long list of names that administration officials have removed in recent weeks. He was the top pick of Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House chief of staff and the former coordinator of the Biden administration’s Covid response, according to a person familiar with the search process.
Background: Dr. Cohen brings experience in both the public and private sectors.
Dr. Cohen, an internist and executive at Aledade, a company that supports community health clinics and doctors, served in the Obama administration, including as chief operating officer and chief of staff for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, who left the White House this week after leading the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response, said Dr. Cohen has unusually strong public and private sector credentials for a CDC chief.
“One of the things we’ve learned in this pandemic and other public health crises is that an effective response requires linking public health and the health care delivery system,” he said. . “There are very few people who have deep expertise in both.”
Also managed by Dr. Cohen is handling North Carolina’s Covid-19 response as a political appointee at a time of divided state government, experience that some public health experts say could translate into the complexities of running a Atlanta-based agency within the Washington-based Department of Health. and Human Services.
“What is important now for the future director of the CDC is the ability to work with officials in Washington and around the country,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Before Mr. Biden announced his intention to appoint Dr. Cohen, a group of Republican lawmakers wrote to him opposing his likely selection, citing his support for mask requirements and saying he was “politicizing science.”
What’s next?: Dr. Cohen will be busy managing an agency overhaul.
Dr. Walensky last year began a broad effort to reorganize what public health experts say is a chronically underfunded agency, a process that Dr. Cohen. That includes working to reform its data systems and improve its communications with the public.
