“This guidance may be quite appropriate as individual guidance, but it is not appropriate as guidance for community action,” said Tom Frieden, who was the CDC director under President Barack Obama. “There was no urgency to change the mask guidance. That should have been done in a more planful way,” Frieden continued, adding: “I haven’t said that on the record before.” Zeke Emanuel, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, who was on Biden’s transition task force, was similarly critical. “It wasn’t well done,” Emanuel said. “Slowing this down would have been the prudent thing to improve the communication and ensure that all the considerations that were needed on such a momentous decision were in fact taken into account, and that the administration had answers for the very, very obvious potential scenarios.”... When CDC Director Rochelle Walensky informed the White House of the updated mask guidance, for instance, West Wing officials asked what the agency would tell parents and businesses, but did not receive clear answers, according to a person briefed on the conversation. No one was willing to ask the agency to delay its guidance for more preparation, however, this person said.