"I'm very proud of the work we did in North Carolina," Dr. Mandy Cohen, the new director, told Rep. Jeff Duncan after he asked if she regretted any of the policies put into place in North Carolina, such as school closures, when she was the state's health secretary.
Dr. Cohen replaced Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President Joe Biden's first CDC director, over the summer.
Dr. Walensky was an advocate for COVID-19 vaccines, masks, and school closures.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw said that Dr. Cohen was in the perfect place to help the CDC reestablish credibility.
Dr. Cohen refused to say authorities in North Carolina or at the CDC did anything wrong, repeatedly steering the discussion back to the future, not the past.
Dr. Cohen said that the CDC was in touch with counterparts in China, where the agency has an office, and that the surge in respiratory infections in China was not, based on current information, from "a new or novel pathogen."
Some lawmakers pressed Dr. Cohen on a laboratory in China that was operating without permission, after a House report said the CDC refused to speak for months to local officials who raised the alarm.
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