NEW YORK -- The outgoing head of the nation’s top public health agency urged the next administration to maintain its focus and funding to keep Americans safe from emerging health threats. “We need to continue to do our global work at CDC to make sure we are stopping outbreaks at their source,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press.
“We need to keep that funding up. We need to keep the expertise up. We need to keep the diplomacy up.
” Cohen, 46, will be leaving office in January after about 18 months in the job. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday night said he picked Dave Weldon , a former Congressman from Florida, to be the agency’s next chief. Cohen said she hasn’t met Weldon and doesn’t know him.
She previously voiced concern about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine advocate and CDC critic nominated to oversee all federal public health agencies .
The CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. The staff is heavy with scientists — 60% have master’s degrees or doctorates.
The last eight years have been perhaps the most difficult in the agency's history. The CDC once enjoyed a sterling international reputation for its expertise on infectious diseases and other causes of illness and death. But trust in the agency fell because of missteps during the early days of the COVID-1.