“My job is to put my head down, ignore the criticism and do the right thing for the public and to do the right thing for health,” Dr. Walensky said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “And so that’s what I did.”…
Some Biden administration officials said they were frustrated at the way the agency communicated some of the guidance changes. The people said the White House was caught off guard by the CDC’s pronouncement in May that fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in most settings, and was expecting the July reversal of that recommendation to apply to fewer people and circumstances. Although the administration backed the changes, White House officials had little time to prepare for how to explain them to the public…
Dr. Walensky defended the CDC’s messaging. She said it has been hard to distill complex science in the midst of a pandemic in which public-health measures including masking have been politicized. She said that some of her statements have been misinterpreted, and that the CDC has changed guidance to reflect evolving data.
“I am really struggling with how to communicate to people who are worried about politics, and I just want them to continue to be at their family’s dinner table,” Dr. Walensky said.
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