Delaware’s top public health official, who has led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced she will be leaving her position in June.
Dr. Karyl Rattay, the country’s longest-serving public health director, will be stepping down on June 30 after leading the Division of Public Health for 13 years. It’s unclear where she will work next and who her successor will be. The state did not make Rattay available for an interview.
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During the pandemic, Rattay became one of the most public faces of the pandemic in Delaware, as she was a part of Gov. John Carney’s press briefings for nearly two years.
This past year, Rattay led COVID-19 vaccine outreach efforts, specifically being the leading voice on urging Delawareans to get vaccinated and boosted.
Throughout the pandemic, public health officials, across the country, reported regularly receiving threats or antagonistic comments from the public. Rattay said in an October interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal that she had never received “so many hateful emails, and outreach from individuals” until now.
Rattay, a pediatrician by training, tackled misinformation in addition to a deadly virus.
“The misinformation and the politicization of effective mitigation strategies has really not only impaired our ability to respond appropriately,” she said in a recent News Journal interview, “but has just taken us away from the ability to respond together in a unified way.”
Rattay, as public health director, also oversaw the state’s response to the opioid crisis and was instrumental in the General Assembly increasing the age to buy tobacco products to 21. She also led state programs that resulted in adecrease of unintended pregnancies and cancer mortality.
Staff writer Emily Lytle contributed reporting to this article.
Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 256-2466 or at mnewman@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MereNewman.
