User:CountingKoalas/NancyMessonnier

(From Wikipedia page for Nancy Messonnier)

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Since January 2020, Messonnier has been helping lead the CDC efforts to address and combat the emerging threat of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). When 195 Americans were evacuated out of Wuhan because of the virus, the CDC moved to quarantine all of them, with Messonnier noting: "While we realize this is an unprecedented action, this is an unprecedented threat."

In a February 25 press briefing at the White House, Messonnier warned of the impending community spread of the virus in the United States, stating: "Disruption to everyday life might be severe." Following her comments during the February White House press briefing, she did not appear again at the briefing and there was speculation that Messonnier had been "silenced" for her comments stressing the growing urgency of the coronavirus crisis in the United States. On February 28, she said that the U.S. "acted incredibly quickly before most other countries. Aggressively controlled our borders and we were able to slow the spread into the United States. ...We have been testing aggressively." While Messonnier has no longer appeared in White House briefings, she has continued giving regular CDC briefings, which have been broadcast to the public, and she has made public appearances in All Things Considered on NPR. ''' She continues to be a public source of reliable information on the emerging pandemic. ' (Source needed; biased opinion.)''

On March 9, she cautioned those who were at high risk of severe illness, including the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, should take measures to stock up on groceries and medications and plan on sheltering in place for the foreseeable future. She noted that it was possible that the virus could continue to circulate into next year and that state and local public health officials would begin working to mitigate the spread of the disease and minimize the growing burden on healthcare workers who would soon be dealing with high case loads. (Source needed.) ***In biography, is it relevant to mention specific public advice versus the action of giving advice?

She has also addressed concerns around the CDC and FDA's failure to get working COVID-19 testing kits into the hands of public health officials to enable better containment of the disease and for mitigation of its spread. On January 21, 2020, she had announced that the CDC had finalized its own COVID-19 test. ****On February 5, the CDC began distributing diagnostic tests to public-health laboratories, however, several of those tests were faulty, leading to a major gap in fighting the outbreak. The situation was exacerbated by FDA-imposed regulations on testing, making it difficult for independent development of COVID-19 tests to fill the CDC's distribution gap. *** (Is this relevant information for a biography?***