CDC Director Rochelle Walensky was bad enough. Biden’s new choice is worse. Mandy Cohen was North Carolina’s health secretary for five years. The last two years of her tenure were during the pandemic and lockdowns. Her authoritarian track record is something else.

Mandy Cohen, then-secretary of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, went so far as threatening to sue a school district for rescinding one-size-fits-all quarantine policies in fall 2021, more than a year after publicly declaring schools are a trivial source of COVID spread.

Now executive vice president and CEO of Aledade Care Solutions, Cohen also suggested she had made decisions about COVID restrictions without independently evaluating scientific evidence.

Science? What science? She didn’t need any science! Keeping the schools locked down without any credible evidence to back up her mandates was how Mandy Cohen rolled during the entire pandemic. 

This is a lady who is a complete Fauci fan. 

Did you know it’s #WorldMaskWeek? Face coverings are one of our strongest tools to slow the spread of #COVID19 in our communities… and like my Dr. Fauci mask, they can be fun too! Join me in masking up this week & beyond – every time you leave the house. pic.twitter.com/CCTf7Ngj5e

— Mandy Cohen (@DrMandyCohen) August 13, 2020

Not only is Cohen a huge fan of the mandates and lockdowns, she’s anti-gun and anti-police. 

Mandy Cohen cofounded Doctors for Obama and served as executive director of its spinoff, Doctors for America. The organization, which began as a pro-Obamacare group, in recent years has pushed Congress to ban semiautomatic rifles and treat gun violence as a public health crisis, sided with the anti-police movement, and launched a campaign to “demand [an] anti-racism curriculum in medical institutions.”

Cohen’s affiliation with the left-wing group could exacerbate what is already expected to be a tough confirmation battle. The Biden CDC has been under intense scrutiny thanks in large part to outgoing chief Rochelle Walensky’s support for pandemic quarantines, mask mandates, and school closures. Walensky instituted a ban on evictions, citing the pandemic, that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

Well that background is certainly problematic and raises yet another batch of red flags.

As we’ve found out, Walensky and AFT school boss Randi Weingarten were in cahoots on school lockdowns and closures for months. 

The text messages showing the chummy exchange between Weingarten and Walensky were obtained by the Fairfax County Parents Association through a Freedom of Information Act request with the CDC.

The text chains seem to show Walensky caving to pressure applied by Weingarten to keep schools shuttered in February 2021 and then thanking Weingarten, whom she refers to as her “friend,” after the union released a statement praising the health agency.

Given how much Mandy Cohen loves the lockdowns and threatened schools if they opened, plus wanted all kids masked indefinitely…

Here's a copy of the letter that incoming CDC director @DrMandyCohen sent to the school district on September 15, 2021. https://t.co/7WXZgv3upI pic.twitter.com/V1wFldyeeZ

— Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa) June 1, 2023

It’s a fair bet that she’d strongly consider buddying up with Randi Weingarten, if she hasn’t already. 

The lockdowns and school closures were among the biggest if not THE biggest policy failure in this country. The depth of the learning loss is only just now beginning to materialize. The full extent of it won’t be known for some time. 

No one trusts the CDC anymore due to their mishandling of everything during the pandemic. Yet here is Biden promoting a Fauci acolyte and an authoritarian lockdown fanatic as the next CDC director.

Feature Photo Credit: CDC entrance via iStock, cropped and modified