Top CDC official who gave early warnings about COVID-19 resigning

May 7 (UPI) — A top CDC official who sounded the alarm about the seriousness of COVID-19 early last year is resigning from her post next week.

The Hill, Washington Post and New York Times first reported the resignation of senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official Nancy Messonnier, effective May 14.

Messonnier said she’s leaving to become executive director of pandemics and health systems at the Skoll Foundation, a California nonprofit.

“My family and I have determined that now is the best time for me to transition to a new phase of my career,” Messonnier said, according to the reports.

“CDC has provided me many meaningful, rewarding, and challenging opportunities to grow intellectually and mature as a public health leader.”

Messonnier attracted attention in early 2020 when she contradicted messaging about the coronavirus from former President Donald Trump’s administration. At the time, she warned COVID-19 would lead to “disruption to everyday life” that “might be severe.”

When she called on older U.S. residents to avoid crowds and stockpile supplies, she abruptly stopped making public appearances on behalf of the administration. Much of what she predicted eventually happened.

At the CDC, Messonnier was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which served as managing influenza and other respiratory threats.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters at the White House Friday that she wished Messonnier “the best in her future endeavors.”

“Over this pandemic and through a many-decade career she’s made significant contributions, and she leaves behind a strong force of leadership and courage in all that she has done,” Walensky said.

Messonnier started her public health career at the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1995 and held several leadership positions at the CDC.

“We achieved incredible things, including deploying multiple vaccines in under one year and building the information infrastructure to provide real-time vaccination coverage and vaccine safety data,” she said in an email Friday.
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