Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky is preparing an overhaul of the agency after she admitted it failed during the pandemic. The first step should be her resignation.
Walensky said that the CDC made “some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes — from testing, to data, to communications” and was not ready for the start of the pandemic.
“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Walensky said in a statement. “My goal is a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.”
Walensky was not at the CDC at the start of the pandemic. But if accountability is her goal, she should be the first to go. She confused the public repeatedly, saying that President Joe Biden was considering a vaccination mandate before backtracking to say that there “will be no federal mandate.” Not even two months later, Biden did indeed put a vaccine mandate in place.
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 also justified COVID-19 restrictions on vaccinated people by blaming the unvaccinated. In March 2021, she claimed, with no evidence, that vaccinated people “do not carry the virus.” She also said that masking would be seasonal, forever, and that people should be masked “essentially everywhere in the country in public indoor settings.”
Worst of all was how Walensky and the CDC justified restrictions on children, who have never been at serious risk from COVID. Walensky repeatedly changed her position on social distancing in schools, jumping from three feet to six feet to three feet with no rhyme or reason. Worse still, she claimed that data do “not suggest teachers need to be vaccinated,” which would encourage schools to return in person. But the Biden administration didn’t like that, and Walensky quickly reversed course to claim that 95% of the country should keep children out of schools.
Wow. What an embarrassing interview. Walensky just sacrificed all her credibility.
Tapper asks her to provide scientific justification for not reopening schools tomorrow with precautions and she simply can’t. https://t.co/psQx5Ib5HW
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 14, 2021
Shorter Walensky: No, we will not follow the science. We will keep throwing stuff at the wall regardless of evidence regarding harms or benefits because we feel empowered to do so.
She should not be in her current position. https://t.co/CutRlyvFjS
— AG (@AGHamilton29) December 22, 2021
Under Walensky’s leadership, the CDC allowed teachers unions to write school guidance. And yes, the CDC still wants COVID-19 isolations for children, even though they are not at serious risk from the virus, and teachers can get vaccinated if they are concerned about COVID-19.
Walensky has repeatedly misled the public since she took office in January 2021. She let the agency continue to justify restrictions on children in lieu of any evidence it would protect anyone. She put Biden administration talking points and safetyism ahead of actual science and data. The CDC was deeply flawed before Walensky arrived, but she was too steeped in its shortcomings to be the one to fix it.
