Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Wall Street Journal - January 11, 2009
Betsy McKay, betsy.mckay@wsj.com and Alicia Mundy, alicia.mundy@wsj.com
Julie Gerberding will step down as CDC director when Mr. Obama is sworn in next week, ending a controversial tenure of more than six years. She will be replaced by William Gimson III, the agency's chief operating officer, until a permanent successor is named.
In addition, the FDA's current science chief, Frank Torti, will serve as acting director until a permanent commissioner is named. Deliberations over the FDA are difficult because of competing interests, but a decision could be made in the next three weeks, people close to the process said.
It isn't clear who will be named Dr. Gerberding's successor. Several public-health experts have said scientists under consideration could include James Marks, a former senior CDC official who is now a senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Helene Gayle, former CDC director for HIV/AIDS and president and chief executive officer of CARE; and Thomas Frieden, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The CDC could play a central role in Obama efforts to boost preventive health care because it funds community programs, public-health experts say.
Obama transition officials didn't respond Sunday to requests for comment. Dr. Gayle declined to comment on whether she has had discussions with the transition team but said "it would be an honor to be asked to lead" the CDC.
While Dr. Gerberding elevated the CDC's profile, improved coordination to respond to public-health crises, and led other public-health achievements, critics claim that she allowed politics to intrude on the agency's scientific work and that an agency reorganization prompted an exodus of high-level scientists.
During a confirmation hearing last week, the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, former Sen. Tom Daschle, told a Senate panel, "I want to take ideology and politics as much as humanly possible out of the process and leave the scientists to do their job."
Dr. Gerberding has consistently denied kowtowing to politics and maintained that her agency reorganization strengthened the CDC. A CDC spokesman said she wasn't available for comment Sunday but would likely address CDC employees this week.
Dr. Torti, the FDA's present principal deputy commissioner, was named to the temporary slot heading the agency over the longtime director of the drug division, Janet Woodcock, who is under fire from Congress in relation to several drug-safety issues, including the importation of contaminated heparin from China.
Dr. Torti has been at the FDA since April, when he was brought in as chief scientist, a new position, from Wake Forest University, where he led its cancer center.
In a letter last month to the transition team, Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who has held 16 hearings on issues at the FDA, asked Mr. Obama not to name any current high-level official of the agency to a post there because he said the drug division has been too closely aligned with the pharmaceutical industry's agenda. The FDA didn't respond to requests for comment.
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