Steep learning curve on messaging for CDC’s Walensky

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The crux of the matter, several administration officials said, is the failure of messaging experts from the CDC and the Biden administration to work together. Who is to blame for this is a matter of debate. Critics of Dr Walensky say she is not collaborative enough, too often giving decisions to other federal officials who then struggle to defend them in public. Her supporters say she tries hard to coordinate, but it’s not her job to ensure consensus across the administration.

Some suggest the White House has gone too far in its hands-off approach, letting scientists rule, leaving a leadership vacuum and forcing ad hoc coordination between different public health agencies. This has been exacerbated by Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, who receives routine briefings from scientists but fails to resolve interagency disputes over the response to the pandemic.

Dr Fauci, the administration’s best-known spokesperson on the pandemic, has at times confused the issue further, publicly contradicting the CDC as he did this week or making statements that he then backed down.

He said in late December, for example, that a vaccination requirement for domestic airline passengers should be seriously considered, leaving the White House to answer a slew of questions about a policy it was not prepared to recommend. . He later said a warrant was unlikely.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday said it was acceptable for the CDC to change its guidelines, adding that, on the one hand, “if they hadn’t changed their recommendations over time. of the time, schools would likely be closed across the country.

But even some within Dr Walensky’s own agency agree that the CDC’s public statements on the pandemic have repeatedly failed, long after experts said the agency should have mastered clear and concise public messages about the pandemic. worst public health crisis in a century.

Managing Isolation Guidelines was a case study of how to confuse the public. And the controversy is not over: Health experts continued Wednesday to criticize the CDC’s decision not to recommend a negative test before people with Covid end five-day isolation.

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