Rochelle Walensky faces a surging virus -- and a crisis of trust

For every modification and revision of its guidelines, the CDC, and Walensky, have taken heat. In May 2021, when vaccination rates were increasing, Walensky recommended that immunized people could stop wearing masks indoors. The decision balanced the science at the time—cases were falling but still far from zero—against the growing backlash from the public about the lack of benefits of vaccination; if getting the shots changed nothing about what they could do safely, then why get vaccinated? Two and a half months later, the CDC went back to urging even vaccinated people to wear masks indoors as a new variant pushed case numbers up again.

Advertisement

The media, politicians and the public demolished the CDC for flip-flopping. “I have spent a lot of time thinking about” the shifting advice, says Walensky. “All of the science in that moment said it was safe to take off your masks if you were vaccinated. We perhaps should have said ‘for now.’ I think that if we had said, ‘Despite the science, you have to keep your masks on,’ we would have lost the trust of people with regard to actually following the science.”

Finding that balance is a task unique to the CDC: keeping up with constantly changing science and turning that data into practical public-health advice. “We have to provide what the science says not in a vacuum but with the understanding of the uncertainty and the moment,” says Walensky. And that means adapting recommendations to the influx of new data. “Translating science into practiceable guidance is what has really distinguished the value of CDC over the arc of time,” says Dr. Julie Gerberding, chief patient officer at Merck, who ran the CDC from 2002 to 2009. “We have all had scenarios where we weren’t able to provide perfect communication [and] perfect guidance. That’s part of the challenge.”

Advertisement

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement