CDC director defends agency’s abrupt reversal on mask recommendations
The nation’s top public health official on Sunday defended her agency’s abrupt reversal on wideranging mask recommendations, saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had weighed new data before announcing that Americans who had been vaccinated could go without masks.
“We now have science that has really just evolved even in the last two weeks,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on ABC’s “This Week,” citing new data that coronavirus vaccines are curbing spread of the disease and offering protection against virus variants.
Walensky, who appeared on four separate Sunday morning news shows to explain her agency’s new guidelines, also touted widespread access to those vaccines and called on tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans to go get shots.
“We also need to say that this is not permission for widespread removal of masks,” she added on ABC.
Thursday’s announcement that CDC was changing almost all masking and distancing recommendations for fully vaccinated Americans caught physicians, state and local leaders and even some White House officials off guard.
The Washington Post on Saturday reported that Walensky first signed off on changing her agency’s mask guidance on Monday, but continued to defend CDC’s sweeping guidance that Americans wear masks in public, including in a Senate hearing on Tuesday before CDC narrowed its recommendations.
Pressed by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace about whether the CDC was pressured to roll back its call for widespread masking, Walensky insisted that the shift was driven by public health, not politics.
“It certainly would’ve been easier if the science had evolved a week earlier, and I didn’t have to go to Congress making those statements,” Walensky said. “I delivered it as soon as I can [sic.] when we have the information,” she added, citing new research and falling case numbers.
Walensky also disputed Wallace’s question about whether the CDC was relying on Americans to now follow a “honor system” on masks.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said that it will not impose requirements for people to prove they’ve gotten shots, like mandating so-called vaccine passports.
“The honor system is to be honest with yourself,” said Walensky, warning that Americans who weren’t vaccinated and chose to go without masks were putting themselves at risk.
Public health experts have warned that the CDC’s shift on maskwearing could force grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses into the uncomfortable position of checking whether patrons have been vaccinated.
Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe’s have dropped mask requirements for the vaccinated in recent days. Other major retailers, including Target, Home Depot and CVS, said they will continue to require masks in stores as they review CDC guidance and company policies.
Only 36.7% of Americans are fully vaccinated, according to a Washington Post analysis of CDC data, and 47.1% have received at least one shot.
“Probably the most important thing that businesses could do right now ... is to work to ensure that it’s easy for their own employees to get vaccinated,” Walensky said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Walensky told reporters that CDC is “actively working” to update the agency’s guidance on safety protections at schools, camps and child care settings. She added that she’s hopeful about the state of the outbreak in the United States, as cases continue to fall.
“I am really cautiously optimistic that we are in a good place right now,” Walensky said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Walensky also sidestepped a question by CNN’s Dana Bash about whether she would continue to wear a mask if she was a pregnant woman.
“That’s going to really be an individual by individual decision ... it really just depends on how much risk you’re willing to tolerate,” Walensky said.