Ask CDC to Hire Pediatrician for New Director Role

Sign the letter

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH
Director Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30333

Dear Dr. Walensky, 

We write to you as members in the science and health care industry regarding your current open position for Director at the Coronavirus & Other Respiratory Diseases Division.  We deeply appreciate this new role that specifically focuses on COVID-19 and the multitude of respiratory diseases that impact our community’s health and well being. This position could not come at a more critical time: many of us are still reeling from the massive tripledemic surge of respiratory illness in the last few months, which led to the overflow of children’s hospitals across the country.  

In light of the recent pediatric health crisis and in an effort to strive for more equitable representation and input on children’s health needs, we urge that the new director position be filled by a qualified child health expert who has extensive pediatric clinical experience. Our request comes by considering the following:  

• Pediatricians are on the ground and have a first-hand understanding of the unique intricacies that should inform public health policy. They are also attuned to the factors that make children less “profitable” to invest in and how these challenges become hindrances to providing children the best possible health care. It is paramount that this perspective is brought front and center when discussing national health policies, which ultimately impact our youngest citizens and their families.   

• Infants and young children are often placed in high risk categories for respiratory illnesses such as RSV, influenza and enterovirus, which disproportionately impact these populations compared to most adults under 75.  As we saw in the tripledemic surge, the added factor of COVID infections made other infections even more disruptive and dangerous for children.  Respiratory viruses often impact young children at higher rates and having a pediatric expert would enhance the policy decision making process.

• Unfortunately, the COVID-19 vaccine roll out for children under 5 was met with many barriers and was mired with problems that ultimately led to harmful consequences such as wide-spread infection in children before vaccine protection, lower vaccine uptake when it finally became available, distrust of our public health institutions, fatigue and frustration from families of young children who felt left behind in public health policies.  Having a pediatrician in this role will offer a critical and currently missing perspective during health policy decision making that takes into account the real life challenges young children and their families face during health emergencies. 

Currently, the division does not have a pediatric expert in a prominent leadership role and having a voice that brings pediatric expertise would be one concrete step towards ensuring that children are no longer left behind. We hope that you will consider our request to fill the director role for the Coronavirus & Other Respiratory Disease Division with a pediatric expert.  

Sincerely,