North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, Rep. Dan Bishop and other Republicans are citing Dr. Mandy Cohen’s track record during the COVID-19 pandemic in opposing her as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
President Joe Biden is expected to name Cohen to lead the CDC, as first reported by The Washington Post. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to McClatchy that she is Biden’s choice, saying the decision is not final, as Cohen still must complete paperwork for the role. Her nomination by Biden would not require Senate confirmation.
In a letter to Biden, 28 House and Senate members wrote that Cohen is “unfit for the position” and that throughout her career she “has politicized science, disregarded civil liberties, and spread misinformation about the efficacy and necessity of COVID vaccinations and the necessity of masks, during her time as the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
“She also has a history of engaging in partisan left-wing politics.”
Cohen led North Carolina’s response to the pandemic while secretary of DHHS, a role she held for five years. She was a fixture at Gov. Roy Cooper’s regular briefings on the latest infection numbers and restrictions. She urged people to use masks and practice social distancing and provided information on vaccine eligibility and availability.
Cooper, during the pandemic, enacted various executive decrees shutting down bars, restaurants, gyms and other public locations for months. Many states across the nation enacted similar restrictions, some more lenient and some more strict. These shutdowns and measures were met with varying reactions, with some people in favor of loosening restrictions and others against them.
North Carolina ranked right around the middle of COVID-19 mortality rates nationwide and fared better than most other Southern states, according to CDC cumulative data.
Cohen has years of experience at the federal and state level, having worked for over a decade in women’s health services with the Department of Veterans Affairs and as chief operating officer and chief of staff at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Obama administration, among other roles.
Masks and vaccines in schools
In the letter, Republicans wrote that in her role as head of DHHS, Cohen “was a proponent of unnecessary, unscientific COVID restrictions on school children,” citing July 2021 requirements that unvaccinated students at all schools wear a mask indoors and that children and staff in kindergarten through 8th grade classes wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
At that time, CDC guidance said fully vaccinated students and teachers did not have to wear face masks in school while recommending continued masking of unvaccinated people in schools, which included all students in elementary schools, as previously reported by The News & Observer. The N&O also reported that at that time North Carolina was reporting 60% more COVID-19 cases than in the week before.
In February 2022, North Carolina eased COVID-19 requirements, citing widespread access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Authors also wrote that Cohen’s decision-making during the pandemic “indicates that she merely arbitrarily copied her friends’ actions in similar positions of power, without considering scientific evidence or the decisions of elected officials” and that, “Despite being tasked to serve in a purportedly nonpartisan agency,” she has supported “left-wing policies,” citing Cohen’s time working for a group known as Doctors for Obama, which later changed its name to Doctors for America.
“Given her strong affiliation with the Democrat Party and the COVID-19 lockdowns, it will be difficult for the American people to trust Dr. Cohen to run the CDC as a nonpartisan actor who makes objective decisions rooted in scientific data, and not in political expediency. Therefore, we urge you to reverse course on Dr. Cohen’s reported appointment to the Director of the CDC,” they wrote.
Praise for Cohen’s work during pandemic
Cohen has received accolades for her work at DHHS. In September 2020, she was awarded the Leadership in Public Health Practice Award from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health for her leadership during the pandemic.
For Leah McCall Devlin, a professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and former state health director, Cohen is a good fit for the CDC role.
Devlin told The N&O that Cohen “demonstrated here in North Carolina, that she can work in a bipartisan manner on these important issues, that she’s not about the politics, she rises above and beyond what may be out there in terms of different agendas and she appreciates the role very much of elected and other appointed officials.”
“They’ve got their job to do,” Devlin said. “She understands that, and it’s different from what her job is. Her job, she’s demonstrated, is to get the facts, the science to make her recommendations. But she knows at the end of the day, they’re going to be the ones that make some of these critical decisions. So I think she’ll be really good on the Hill in helping people understand the role of CDC, the vision, the needs, the infrastructure.”
Devlin worked with Cohen in DHHS and at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, where Cohen was an adjunct professor until recently, she said
Republicans on Cohen and CDC
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who did not sign on to the letter, said in a statement shared by spokesperson Daniel Keylin that Americans “have lost trust in our public health institutions” because of politically motivated decisions.
Tillis noted that lawmakers have required that CDC directors win confirmation in the Senate but that has not yet taken effect. The new power is granted in the omnibus spending law signed in December.
“While Dr. Cohen has a wealth of medical experience, there are legitimate questions being raised about her role in recommending school shutdowns and enforcing the state’s emergency declaration for far longer than was necessary,” he said. “These would have been good questions to address during a Senate confirmation process, which unfortunately does not begin for CDC director nominees until 2025. Dr. Cohen will have her work cut out for her as she attempts to restore the American people’s trust in the CDC.”
Republican State Treasurer Dale Folwell, a candidate for governor, tweeted criticism of Cohen on Friday, saying “Pray for our country. As a member of the NC Council of State, my observation is that the actions of Dr. Mandy Cohen during COVID resulted in more disease, death, poverty and illiteracy. As NC governor, I would be hard pressed to ever follow her lead at CDC if chosen by the POTUS.”
Folwell, as treasurer, oversees the State Health Plan. When COVID-19 hit he was among the first Republican leaders to criticize restrictions enacted by Cooper, urging him to loosen them and open up businesses.
Budd told McClatchy that lawmakers are “looking for nonideological individuals that don’t have a political agenda.”
“We’re looking for highly competent individuals, and I have concerns.”
Others who signed on to the congressional letter along with Budd and Bishop include 16 far-right House Freedom Caucus members, including firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia. It also includes Sen. Ted Cruz, from Texas and Sen. Mike Lee from Utah.
