Infectious-disease chief at Mass. General could become next head of CDC

Politico reports President-elect Biden has picked Rochelle Walensky, currently chief of Massachusetts General Hospital's division of infectious diseases, to take over at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when he takes office next month.

Walensky, who practices medicine at both Mass. General and Brigham and Women's Hospital, has specialized in HIV care, but of course of late has focused on Covid-19.

In addition to her medical degree, she has a master's in public health, from the Harvard School of Public Health.

She would be the doctor with Boston ties to leave for a job with the new administration. Biden recently announced he would appoint Dr. Vivek Murthy as his surgeon general. Murthy was an internist and hospitalist at Brigham and Women's Hospital before the Senate approved his appointment as surgeon general under President Obama in 2013.