Dr. Rachel Levine became a familiar figure to many Pennsylvanians over the last 10 months of the coronavirus pandemic, explaining what the state was doing to combat the spread of the virus and begging residents to do their part by wearing a mask, washing their hands and staying away from each other.
“Stay calm, stay alert and stay safe,” the state health secretary said, over and over.
Levine, one of the few transgender people nationwide serving in either elective office or as a high-ranking government appointee, was announced Tuesday as President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to be assistant secretary of health.
“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their ZIP code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said in a statement. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”
She leaves the Pennsylvania Health Department at a critical time in the statewide response to the pandemic, with the state reporting hundreds of deaths per day and officials struggling to ramp up distribution of the two COVID-19 vaccines amid fluctuating allocations from the federal government.
Levine “has been a wise, calm, and dedicated partner during this pandemic and I couldn’t be prouder of the tireless work she’s done to serve Pennsylvanians,” tweeted her boss, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. “She will be missed, but I know she will be a tremendous leader” on the federal level.
There was no immediate word on her replacement. The governor’s office said it planned to make an announcement this week.
In a statement, Wolf credited Levine with establishing the state’s medical marijuana program, bringing awareness to opioid use disorder, highlighting the need for adequate medical care and access for the LGBTQ community and managing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adrian Shanker, executive director of the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, said in a statement that Levine’s leadership has saved lives.
“As a transgender woman, Dr. Levine will make history as the first trans person to receive Senate confirmation,” Shanker said. “But more than making history, Dr. Levine will make a difference in the lives of LGBTQ Americans, and all Americans through her innovative approaches and her unabated dedication to public health.”
Levine, a pediatrician who graduated from Harvard and Tulane’s medical school, joined the Wolf administration in 2015 as physician general and became health secretary two years later.
When the state announced its first confirmed case of COVID-19 in March, she became the public face of the response and won plaudits for her calm, unflappable demeanor.
But she also earned plenty of enmity from Republicans and small-business owners over statewide public health orders for people to stay at home, students to learn remotely, and businesses deemed “non-life-sustaining” to close.
State Sen. Judy Ward, a Republican and trained nurse who chairs the Senate Aging & Youth Committee, said Tuesday that Levine “has demonstrated poise at the microphone during news conferences, but her policies have left Pennsylvanians with many questions about her abilities.”
Levine faced tough questions over the high COVID death toll at nursing homes, with some Republicans contending the state didn’t do enough to protect vulnerable residents. The state has reported more than 19,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, over half of which have occurred in nursing homes. Levine defended her agency’s handling of the outbreak.
Some of the criticism of Levine had nothing to do with her decisions as health secretary.
As a transgender woman, she endured a stream of mockery and abuse on social media and elsewhere. She opened a news conference last July by addressing the transphobia that was being directed toward her.
“I want to emphasize that while these individuals may think they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are in fact hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffer directly from these current demonstrations of harassment,” Levine said. “Your actions perpetuate a spirit of intolerance and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals and specifically transgender individuals.”
Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Aside from leading the state pandemic response, she worked on the opioid crisis and the state’s medical marijuana program and promoted LGBTQ medicine.
In a statement, she said she was proud of “the work we have done as an administration to address health equity, and the work I have done personally to raise awareness about LGBTQ equity issues.”
Morning Call reporter Ford Turner contributed to this story.
