SHORELINE, Wash. — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky toured a public health lab in Shoreline Wednesday, highlighting the role Washington state played in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic while recognizing the need for significant investments in public health infrastructure.
"This is a landmark place where the first case [in the U.S.] was diagnosed and Washington state has done so much amazing work in really being one of those leaders in incorporating health, incorporating equity, incorporating data and working together with partnerships," Walensky said in an interview following the tour. "Much of the groundwork they did before the pandemic started, lessons learned during the pandemic and then growing from those lessons and taking those lessons toward more innovation."
Walensky says the CDC recently awarded $60 million to state and local health departments to assist with investments in improving laboratory infrastructure, updating data monitoring systems and strengthening the healthcare workforce.
"We need more investment, we need more workforce, we need more people interested in public health that are continuing to lean in on all the work that we are doing," Walensky said. "Again, this means not just the work in public health but work people can do on the individual level to protect themselves as well; get that bivalent booster, stay up to date on your vaccines, on your family's vaccines."
Walensky noted that while vaccines have provided protection for many, the CDC is still tracking COVID cases and deaths from the illness. She encouraged people to get vaccinated if they have not already and for everyone to keep up with their booster shots.