ST. LOUIS – The director of the CDC stopped in St. Louis Thursday to meet with city health officials. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a Washsington University alum, also spoke to faculty and students at the School of Medicine.
Walensky is the 2022 Gerald Medoff Visiting Professor for the Department of Medicine. She discussed the global and domestic challenges facing public health we move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also touched on the serious problem of the mental health of the health care work force. She said while America needs to scale up the work force, steps also need to be taken to bolster the value of the workers and make sure they feel valued. She also said work needs to be done on lab infrastructure and data modernization.
After the event, Walensky tweeted it was an incredible honor to take part in an event moderated by the Forum for Women in Medicine.
She also then met up with St. Louis City Health Department. The department’s director, Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis said they discussed current and future challenges for public health. Dr. Davis tweeted she thanks Dr. Walensky for listening and being solution-oriented.
Davis also took Walensky to CareSTL Health, a federally qualified health center. She said she wanted to take the CDC director there given the critical role the facilities play in equitable public health service.
Earlier in the day, Walensky did talk about the importance of health equity while at Washington University. She said her department is making progress. She said last year the CDC declared racism a serious public health threat and in doing so, nearly 200 other public health departments followed suit.