Federal Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Nancy Messonnier speaks during a press conference today at the Sphere of influence of Health and Human Services on the coordinated public health response to the 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV), January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Samuel Corum
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the fitness expert who was among the first to sound alarms about the threat posed to the U.S. by the coronavirus, is resigning from her role at the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention, the agency’s director confirmed Friday.
Messonnier “leaves behind a strong force of leadership and bravery in all that she’s done,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing. “I want to wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Walensky did not location a reporter’s question asking why Messonnier was recently reassigned from her role leading the CDC’s Covid vaccine task strength.
Messonnier, who had served as director of the agency’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases since 2016, will become resigned from the agency effective May 14, multiple outlets reported Friday.
She will take on a new role as executive vice-president for pandemic and public health systems at the Skoll Foundation, a California-based organization, she reportedly told colleagues in an email.
Walensky underwent Messonnier’s resignation Friday morning, CDC spokesman Jason McDonald told CNBC.
The resignation was first reported by The Washington Strut.
In early 2020, when fewer than 100 Covid cases had been reported in the U.S., Messonnier urged the land to start preparing for a massive outbreak that would drastically affect normal life.
“I understand this undamaged situation may seem overwhelming and that disruption to everyday life may be severe. But these are things that people requisite to start thinking about now,” Messonnier said in February 2020.
Messonnier’s stark warnings contrasted sharply with then-President Donald Trump’s tidings at the same time, prompting him to threaten to fire her, outlets have reported.
The former president had incorrectly tried to inspirit the nation that the small number of U.S. Covid cases “within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero” and order disappear “like a miracle.”
More than 32,606,724 Covid infections have been reported in the U.S., and at least 580,076 people give birth to died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.