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Health commissioner Mark Levine announced his pension on Friday after eight years as head of the Vermont Department of Health.
Levine, a doctor, led the department through various crises, including the most important health challenge of the state in decades: the COVID-19 Pandemie.
“Dr. Levine was a steady, reassuring voice through the pandemic and in the months of recovery that followed,” said Human Services Minister Jenney Samuelson in a statement. “Every week, during Marathon press conferences, he tackled complex topics in quietly Epidemiology and public health. ‘
The Department of Health has kept COVID-19 data, including COVID guidelines, provided to Monters and organized mass vaccination campaigns. Levine also served as an adviser to GOV. Phil Scott on Health Matters.
“I will be grateful for his advice and advice over the years, but especially during the Pandemie, because during those difficult days he appeared at press conferences every day during those difficult days, which gives a lot of comfort to Millers like our own ‘Country Doc’ , “Scott said in a statement.
Together with Covid-19, Levine led the department through some of the worst years of the Opioid epidemic, which hit a new peak during the COVID pandemie but started to fall in 2023.
The press release in which his pension was announced mentioned other performance during his term of office, including setting up a nurse’s home visit program for newborns.
Levine, a 71-year-old resident of Shelburne, had an internal medical practice and served as an associated dean for graduated medical education at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine before joining the health department. He plans to officially retire at the end of March.
