Nancy Cox, Former CDC Influenza Division Leader, Dies at 77 from Glioblastoma

Cox was born and raised in rural Iowa. She received a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology from Iowa State University, attended the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom on a Marshall fellowship, and received a doctorate in virology from the University of Cambridge.

Cox joined the CDC in 1975 and was named head of the influenza branch in 1992. In 2006, Cox was named Federal Employee of the Year by the Partnership for Public Service. That same year, she made the Time Top 100 list.

Interest in influenza research exploded in the late 1990s and again in the mid-aughts when the H5N1 bird flu virus began infecting and killing mass numbers of poultry in China and other parts of Southeast Asia, as well as infecting and killing some people.

In the early days of detection of human H5N1 infections, roughly half of confirmed cases died. Despite the fact that H5N1 continues to this day to wreak havoc on poultry operations and infect an astonishing array of mammals — including the occasional person — it has not triggered a pandemic.

In an article published in 2019, Cox warned against complacency towards this virus. “We don’t know how the story’s going to end,” she said.

Still, influenza scientists were taken by surprise in 2009 when instead of the feared bird flu pandemic, the world was hit with a pandemic caused by an H1N1 virus that had evolved in pigs. The 2009 H1N1 virus was thought to have emerged in Mexico, with the first two confirmed cases being children in California who had no connections to pigs or to each other.

During the 2009 H1N1 response, Cox's house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

No one was hurt in the incident. Cox was back at work the day after her house burned down in 2009, wearing clothes that smelled of smoke. “It was devastating,” she said. Cox is survived by her husband, a daughter, a stepson, and four grandchildren.