D.C. health director steps down as pandemic response winds down

District of Columbia Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt is stepping down at the end of the month after 7 1/2 years on the job.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a press release that Ms. Nesbitt’s resignation will take effect on July 29.

“None of us knew then that the director of DC Health would also become responsible for leading us through a global pandemic,” Ms. Bowser said in the release. “As DC’s doctor, she has made our community incredibly proud, leading DC Health with expertise, compassion, and a deep understanding of what it takes to build healthier neighborhoods.”

Ms. Bowser went on to say that Ms. Nesbitt “led one of the strongest responses to COVID-19 in the nation,” and that the exiting director “answered every question our community had about COVID-19, viruses, vaccinations, and so much more.”

Some reporting suggests otherwise about the District’s response.

The DCist reported that D.C. Health fudged some of its COVID numbers to meet a reopening metric in September 2020.

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That was followed by a clunky rollout of the COVID vaccine, a haphazard way of enacting and lifting mask mandates as well as two-week lapse in reporting COVID data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this past spring, according to the DCist, though it noted that D.C. ranked well nationally in terms of how it handled the virus.

Ms. Nesbitt told the Washington Post that she’s stepping down so she can look for work outside of government.

Ms. Bowser’s release said that an interim director will be named soon.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.