Leaked audio: Walensky tells Congress she won't lift school mask guidance

Rep. Gary Palmer (R–Ala.) also asked Walensky how she could justify the agency’s school masking guidance.

“Explain why we need to keep allowing school districts to impose a mask mandate on kids,” he asked.

In response, Walensky defended the agency’s current guidance, but also noted—perhaps with some frustration—that local jurisdictions were free to disregard it.

“I will also say that guidance is just guidance, and all of these decisions, we’ve continued to say, have to be made at the local level,” she said. “As cases come down dramatically, we have deferred our guidance to the local jurisdictions.”

Given that many coronavirus-cautious jurisdictions are seemingly waiting for the CDC’s permission to relax masking requirements—in schools, especially—this answer prompted some outrage.

“That’s not acceptable,” said Palmer.