CDC needs to dial back the doomsday mode

How goes the battle against COVID-19?

It depends who you ask. Even as vaccines were rolled out and vulnerable populations first in line for shots, virus experts issued notes of caution: Even if you got the Moderna or Pfizer or Johnson and Johnson vaccine, you should still mask up.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who told CNN that the “best decision” he made was fast-tracking efforts to produce a vaccine, grabbing credit from Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, underscored the need for masks Saturday on “Good Morning America,”

“Removing the mask is really going to depend on what the level of infection in the community is,” Fauci said. “If vaccine rollout goes well and a lot less people on a daily basis get infected, then the likelihood of being able to pull back on mask-wearing (increases) … Right now the one thing I do know is that we have between 50,000 and 60,000 new infections a day. When you’re at that level, you still gotta wear a mask.”

Fauci’s worked both sides in the mask-don’t mask edict over the course of the pandemic, but he has stuck with the masking message for some time. He’s aware of the number of cases, he’s cautious, but he sees brighter days ahead.

So too does Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who now sits on Pfizer’s board of directors.

He told CNBC yesterday that the ability to avoid another COVID surge is possible.

“If we could just buy ourselves another couple of weeks and not really see a takeoff of infection anywhere in the country, I think we’ll be at the point where we’ll have enough vaccine in the population … that it’s going to be a pretty significant backstop — combined with the warming weather — against really a fourth wave” of infections, Gottlieb said, noting states are significantly widening vaccine eligibility.

“I think we’ll achieve that. It’s a little touch and go over the next two weeks because we are seeing some rises in some parts of the country, but it’s probably going to be regionalized. It’s probably just going to be certain states that see their cases go up.”

Again — caution with a side of optimism.

Then there’s Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During a Monday briefing from the White House COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials, Dr. Wallensky warned of “impending doom” as infections and hospitalizations rise.

“We are not powerless. We can change this trajectory of the pandemic,” she said. “But it will take all of us recommitting to following the public health prevention strategies consistently while we work to get the American public vaccinated.”

Same message, essentially: Mask up and keep following safety protocols, and let the vaccinations do their stuff.

So why the literal “doom” and gloom? Walensky noted that the trajectory of the pandemic here is following European countries like Germany, Italy and France, which have experienced a “consistent and worrying spike in cases.”

However, the U.S. fully has vaccinated 16% of the population. According to a New York Times vaccine tracker, Germany stands at 4.7% vaccinated, France at 4% and Italy 4.9%.

We’re not saying we’re out of the woods, but after a pandemic year in which the CDC gave mixed messages on the virus and botched early testing kits, what the public needs is an authority that can speak without hyperbole on the risks and rewards in the war on COVID-19.

“Impending doom” doesn’t do it.