After acknowledging the CDC’s failure during the epidemic, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is contemplating an overhaul of the agency. This process, however, needs to begin with her submitting her resignation.
According to Walensky, the CDC was unprepared for the outbreak of the pandemic. It made “some fairly spectacular, pretty visible blunders – from testing to data to messaging.”
Dismal Response When Needed
For 75 years, the CDC and public health community had been preparing for an outbreak like COVID-19, but when the time came, their performance “did not dependably match expectations,” as Walensky put it in a statement.
“I want to create a public health action-oriented culture at CDC that values transparency, openness, honesty, and efficiency.”
CDC Director Walensky is double masked while testifying before the Senate, despite being triple vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/YjfpSFfbWO
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 11, 2022
Walensky wasn’t working at the CDC when the epidemic first broke out. However, if imposing openness is her ultimate objective, she should be the first to depart.
After continuously misleading the public, she finally admitted “there would be no government requirement” regarding vaccinations and “President Biden is not seriously considering a vaccine mandate.”
Biden actually implemented the vaccination requirement not even two months later.
Walensky blamed the unvaccinated for the outbreak; she used that reasoning to justify the limitations on vaccinated persons.
In March of 2021, she claimed, without providing any proof to support her assertion, that persons who had been vaccinated “do not have the virus.”
In addition to this, she stated individuals should wear masks “practically everywhere in the nation in public indoor settings” and the practice of masking will not be seasonal, but continue indefinitely.
Politicized The CDC
Even worse was the CDC’s and Walensky’s justification for imposing these limits on kids, who had never been in much danger from COVID.
Walensky went through a series of position shifts on social distance in schools, redirecting her stance from three feet to six feet to three feet with no discernible pattern or rationale.
To make matters worse, she said the results “do not show that instructors need to get vaccinated,” which would urge schools to come back to in-person teaching.
Walensky first said 95% of the country should keep children out of schools, but under pressure from the Biden administration, she swiftly changed her mind.
While Walensky was in charge at the CDC, teachers’ unions were given the authority to draft policy for classroom use. Even though children are not in high danger of COVID-19, the CDC still wanted them isolated and wanted educators to be vaccinated.
Teachers at high risk for Covid-19 should have options for virtual learning, CDC chief Dr. Rochelle Walensky says following the agency's updated guidance for reopening schools #CNNSOTU https://t.co/GORbZU7gPv pic.twitter.com/t7b5LEzNeG
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) February 14, 2021
Since Walensky took office in January 2021, she lied to the public on several occasions.
In the absence of proof that such limits would ensure anyone’s safety, she allowed the agency to continue making the case for them. She prioritized the rhetoric and precautions of the Biden administration above hard evidence.
Walensky came to a CDC that had been plagued by problems even before she arrived. She is now too familiar with those problems to be the one to change them.
This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.
