Walensky Defends Messaging as CDC Triggers Confusion

masslive.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky addressed some of the confusion over changing COVID guidelines after many people on Twitter began posting “CDC says” memes last week.

“We at the CDC are 12,000 people who are working 24-7 following the science with an ever-evolving nature in the midst of a really fast-moving pandemic, and we are doing so, putting our head down, to keep America safe,” Walensky told the Today show. “We will continue to update, we will continue to improve how we communicate to the American public. This is fast-moving science.”

At the end of December, the CDC recommended people isolate for only five days if they are infected with the virus and asymptomatic, followed by five days of masking around others. It was previously 10 days of isolation.

But the recommendations were met with a lot of criticism and memes. The memes often started with “the CDC says” and continues with a fake recommendation, such as, “The CDC says you can now talk about fight club.”

Walensky also defended the changes while talking with Savannah Guthrie on the show.

“We are now standing on the shoulders of years of science that has demonstrated that if you are infected, you are most contagious in the one to two days prior to your symptoms and the two to three days after your symptoms,” Walensky said. “So we know that the vast majority of your contagiousness by day five is really behind you.”

The CDC has long faced criticism for its messaging struggles.

Walensky has even begun meeting with Democratic media consultant Mandy Grunwald to improve her communication skills, CNN reported.

Still, doctors are speaking out against the recommendations.

Dr. Michael Mina, a Boston-based immunologist and epidemiologist, has continued to urge the CDC to add a negative test requirement to the recommendations.

“[Because] relationship between symptom start and peak virus load has changed,” he tweeted with an info graphic. “Also, symptoms are not a great indicator of infectiousness (just [thinking] of a lasting cough that lingers, or congestion and headache that could indicate your body is killing the virus before it gets a chance to replicate). Or the many with no symptoms who are highly infectious!”

On Friday, Walensky plans to hold the CDC’s first independent media briefing since the summer to take questions “head on,” CNN reported.