CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who previously said vaccinated people 'don't get sick,' tests positive a month after getting booster shot



CDC Director Rochelle Walensky tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday night.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement that Walensky was experiencing mild symptoms and was resting at home. Walensky will participate in CDC meetings virtually.

Reuters reported that Walensky was not at the White House at the end of this week and had not met in person with any senior U.S. officials before testing positive for COVID-19.

Walensky attended the World Health Summit in Berlin on Monday and Tuesday – where the CDC director wore a mask at all times except when eating or publicly speaking, according to a spokesperson. Walensky returned to the United States on Wednesday.

The CDC statement said that Walensky was "up to date" with her vaccines.

The U.S. health agency defines "up to date" as: "If you have completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series and received the most recent booster dose recommended for you by CDC."

The CDC guidance adds, "You are still up to date if you receive all COVID-19 vaccine doses recommended for you and then become ill with COVID-19. You do not need to be immediately revaccinated or receive an additional booster."

Exactly a month ago, Walensky received the bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine – which is said to provide protection against the original COVID-19 strain and the Omicron variant.

\u201c.@CDCDirector Rochelle Walensky visited a CVS Pharmacy today to get her bivalent COVID-19 booster. The bivalent vaccine provides added protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant and is available at CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide. https://t.co/wXDZYrmMyd\u201d
— CVS Health (@CVS Health) 1663881207

In March 2021, Walensky declared that vaccinated people "don't get sick."

“Our data from the CDC today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get sick,” Walensky told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. “And that it’s not just in the clinical trials, it’s also in real-world data.”

Days after Walensky made the comments, the CDC walked the director's remarks back.

“It’s possible that some people who are fully vaccinated could get COVID-19," a CDC spokesperson told the New York Times. "The evidence isn’t clear whether they can spread the virus to others. We are continuing to evaluate the evidence."

\u201cCDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: \u201cOur data from the CDC today suggest that vaccinated people do not carry the virus.\u201d\u201d
— The Recount (@The Recount) 1617125532

In leaked audio, CDC director tells lawmakers there will be no changes to school mask guidance



CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told lawmakers there are no plans to change the federal guidelines requiring students to wear masks in schools, according to a report.

"The CDC provides guidance," Walensky said during a briefing to the House Energy and Commerce committee. "Our guidance currently is that masking should happen in all schools right now."

Leaked audio from the closed-door meeting on Tuesday was reported by Reason. Walensky, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for preparedness and response, Dawn O'Connell, spoke to lawmakers about federal COVID-19 guidelines, gave updates on vaccines, and answered questions about the pandemic.

According to Reason, lawmakers from both parties criticized the CDC's mask guidance, and Walensky was challenged to explain why federal guidelines appear to be out of step with the latest science.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the ranking Republican on the committee, observed that a major study from Arizona used by the CDC to support school mask mandates is seriously flawed and pressed Walensky to change the federal guidance to be more in line with science and with the international community.

"What we see in the U.S. is an outlier as it relates to the mask mandate for our children to go to school," McMorris Rodgers reportedly said. "[The World Health Organization and UNICEF] have both recommended against masking for kids under the age of 5 because it's going to do more harm than good. For children ages 6 to 11, they think that we should be considering other factors like learning and social development. My question today, my one question, is Dr. Walensky, will you commit to update your guidance by Friday to allow children in person without the burden of masks?"

Walensky did not commit to changing the CDC's guidance by Friday, even though she acknowledged that the Arizona study has "limitations," Reason reported.

"They all have limitations, and that's important to recognize because we are not randomizing schools," she told McMorris Rodgers. "We have to control for whether there are windows, ventilation, and other activities happening outside of these schools. So all of these studies have limitations. But they are for the most part uniformly pointing to that when there's a lot of disease out there, the masks are preventing that disease and preventing that transmission and because of that we are able to keep our schools open."

Another lawmaker, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), demanded that Walensky explain how the school masking guidance is justified.

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

Responding, Walensky defended the agency's current guidance and noted that schools are free to disregard the CDC's recommendations, if they so choose.

"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 reportedly said. "As cases come down dramatically, we have deferred our guidance to the local jurisdictions."

"That's not acceptable," Palmer told her. His frustration is understandable, given that school districts across the nation refer to the CDC's guidelines to justify masking requirements, and in states with statewide mask mandates for schools, those mandates also rely on the CDC's recommendations.

Walensky also faced tough questions from Democrats. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) highlighted the discrepancy between the CDC's masking guidelines and the real-life behavior of people in America, even in progressive areas like the San Francisco Bay Area that Eshoo represents.

"You hear the word confusion over and over again," Eshoo said. "But here's another one for you: masking. You know where I live in the Bay Area, the peninsula in the heart of Silicon Valley? Schools, cities, towns, counties: you're saying one thing, and they're doing something else. And this is a highly educated area, too. I trust our public health officials here. So my first question and my second point to you, Dr. Walensky, why do we have to be on two different tracks? Isn't there some kind of public health consensus about this?"

According to Reason, Walensky attempted to reply with national statistics about there being 170,000 cases per day and 2,200 deaths per day on average, but Eshoo cut her off.

"When you use the national figures, that's not a snapshot of where we are, so can you take that into consideration as you're giving me an answer?" Eshoo said.

"Absolutely," Walensky said. "We know that all of these decisions have to be made at the jurisdictional level. So not only do we report the national data, but we have to report them at the jurisdictional level, because we know that we ask the jurisdictions to look at their local context, to look at their local cases, to look at how their hospitals are doing, to look at their local death rates. And that is exactly what I think is happening across the country in a phased way. Many different policies are rolling out. Some are saying they're removing masks. Now some are saying they're removing masks at the end of the month. Some say we're removing masks at the end of the month, but not yet for schools. And so this is really happening at the jurisdictional level. And what we're recommending is that given right now, where we are for cases, that the masks should still stay on."

Her answer did not satisfy Eshoo, who warned that the CDC is damaging its credibility by excusing some states and local jurisdictions for easing mask mandates without changing its national guidance for mask-wearing.

During public remarks Wednesday, Walensky said the CDC is reviewing its mask guidance with an eye toward giving people a "break from things like mask-wearing," but she reiterated that coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, as counted by the CDC, are still too high and that for now, the guidance will remain unchanged.

CDC director says agency is reviewing mask guidance, but not changing recommendations yet



U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday said the agency is reviewing its mask guidance with the aim of eventually giving people a "break" once COVID-19 metrics like cases and hospitalizations improve.

The CDC director emphasized that federal masking recommendations are not changing yet. But she did say the agency is shifting its focus to COVID-19 hospitalizations as the key measure for the severity of the pandemic.

"We must consider hospital capacity as an additional important barometer," Walensky said during the weekly White House COVID-19 update Wednesday. "We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen," she said.

CDC Dir. Walensky says agency is not yet changing mask guidance, citing substantial or high community transmission in over 97% of counties and hospitalizations.\n\n\u201cWe want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better.\u201d https://abcn.ws/3GZelFf\u00a0pic.twitter.com/xKQc0cvkBT
— ABC News (@ABC News) 1645029343

CDC recommendations currently state that people should wear face coverings indoors in public if they live in an area with high viral transmission. The recommendation is for both those that are vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who are not. According to CDC data, nearly every county in the United States has high viral transmission. Federal law also requires people to wear masks on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation.

But for months, states like Florida and Texas have gone without mask mandates that would enforce the CDC guidelines. And as the winter surge of the Omicron variant cases has subsided, states with Democratic governors like New York and California have begun to pull back on their mandates, citing falling numbers of cases and hospitalizations.

Since many states are now ignoring the CDC's recommendations, the Biden administration has been pressed to update its guidance to match the reality many Americans are now living in, where people are preparing to live with COVID-19 as endemic disease.

Jeff Zients, White House COVID response coordinator, said the federal government is cooperating with state governors, public health experts, and business leaders to prepare for what comes next.

"We're moving toward a time when Covid isn't a crisis, but it's something we can protect against and treat," Zients said at Wednesday's briefing. "The president and our Covid team are actively planning for the future."

Still, Walensky said that while "things are moving in the right direction," viral transmission is still too high to lax the agency's guidance.

The CDC on Wednesday reported an average of about 136,000 new COVID-19 cases per day over the last week, an 83% decrease from the record high of more than 800,000 new cases per day set on Jan. 15, according to CNBC News.

The CDC said there are about 85,000 patients in U.S. hospitals with COVID, according to a seven-day average of data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"As we have fewer cases, people will become more comfortable with taking off their mask, but we will certainly want people to have the flexibility to wear one if they so choose," Walensky said.

She noted that everyone should wear a mask for 10 days if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Internet BLOWS UP When CDC Director Brings Up Future of Masking

Internet BLOWS UP When CDC Director Brings Up Future of Masking

CDC director faces criticism from all sides over statement that 75% of COVID-19 deaths have 'at least four comorbidities'



U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is being criticized from all sides over comments she made last week in an interview.

Appearing on ABC News to discuss Omicron variant death statistics, Walensky was asked about a new CDC study that found COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death. The study looked at more than 1 million people who completed primary vaccination (two shots, no booster, or one Johnson & Johnson shot) between December 2020 and October 2021. Researchers found that "severe COVID-19-associated outcomes" occurred only in only 0.015% of vaccinated people. Deaths were rare, happening in only 0.0033% of cases.

"Severe COVID-19 outcomes were defined as hospitalization with a diagnosis of acute respiratory failure, need for noninvasive ventilation (NIV), admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) including all persons requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, or death (including discharge to hospice)," the study said. "Among 1,228,664 persons who completed primary vaccination during December 2020–October 2021, a total of 2,246 (18.0 per 10,000 vaccinated persons) developed COVID-19 and 189 (1.5 per 10,000) had a severe outcome, including 36 who died (0.3 deaths per 10,000)."

The study explained that people most at risk from developing a severe outcome were older than 65, are immunosuppressed, or have at least one of six other underlying health conditions.

Digging into these results on Friday, Walensky told "Good Morning America" that the vast majority of people who died of COVID-19 after primary vaccination had at least four underlying conditions that increased their risk of serious illness. Those conditions include diabetes, and chronic kidney, cardiac, pulmonary, neurologic, and liver diseases.

"The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So really these were people who were unwell to begin with, and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron," Walensky said, referring to deaths of vaccinated people examined in the study, not total deaths from COVID-19.

CDC director responds to criticisms on COVID-19 guidance l GMAyoutu.be

Some people on social media attacked the CDC director for allegedly speaking disrespectfully toward disabled or chronically ill people. Newsweek reported that Twitter users posted #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy with comments criticizing Walensky for saying she was encouraged that COVID-19 deaths among the vaccinated appear limited to people with preexisting health conditions or disabilities.

"Contrary to popular belief, CDC Director, disabled people aren't just data points ... How callous to say you're encouraged by the prospect of their deaths," Imani Barbarin, a disability rights activist, wrote.

Contrary to popular belief, @CDCDirector, disabled people aren\u2019t just data points. Every life lost was loved by someone, someone\u2019s community member, someone\u2019s friend. \n\nHow callous to say you\u2019re encouraged by the prospect of their deaths. \n\n #MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy
— Imani Barbarin, MAGC | Crutches&Spice \u267f\ufe0f (@Imani Barbarin, MAGC | Crutches&Spice \u267f\ufe0f) 1641695050

Matthew Cortland, a lawyer who suffers from a chronic illness, tweeted: "It is 'encouraging' to [Walensky] that chronically ill and disabled Americans are dying ... our deaths clearly don't count."

It is "encouraging" to @CDCDirector that chronically ill & disabled Americans are dying. It's no wonder that @CDCgov has consistently refused to issue guidance protecting the health & wellbeing of chronically ill Americans \u2013 our deaths clearly don't count.pic.twitter.com/zd3iBQTH0J
— Matthew Cortland, JD (@Matthew Cortland, JD) 1641608728

Many others shared similar comments, some of them nasty. The social media backlash prompted Walensky to respond on Sunday with a tweet emphasizing the CDC's dedication to protecting people with comorbidities from COVID-19.

We must protect people with comorbidities from severe #COVID19. I went into medicine \u2013 HIV specifically \u2013 and public health to protect our most at-risk. CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, incl. those w/ chronic health conditions, disabilities & older adults.
— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH) 1641772496

"We must protect people with comorbidities from severe COVID-19. I went into medicine—HIV specifically—and public health to protect our most at-risk," she wrote. "CDC is taking steps to protect those at highest risk, including those with chronic health conditions, disabilities and older adults."

But the CDC director faced more backlash for entirely different reasons. Several individuals called attention to Walensky's comment that over 75% of COVID deaths were people with "at least four comorbidities." These critics took her comments out of context, leaving out the vaccination effectiveness study and claiming she was saying that 75% of all coronavirus-related deaths were from people with comorbidities.

"How many had 2/3 things that would likely kill them or were in late stage terminal cancer, or were hit by a bus?" Donald Trump Jr. asked. "Whats the # of truly healthy?"

CDC Dir. says over 75% of covid deaths were people with \u201cat least 4 comorbidities\u201d & were \u201cunwell to begin with\u201d\n\nHow many had 2/3 things that would likely kill them or were in late stage terminal cancer, or were hit by a bus?\nWhats the # of truly healthy?https://twitter.com/i/status/1480566096113680388\u00a0\u2026
— Donald Trump Jr. (@Donald Trump Jr.) 1641840437

"This means they shut down the country, stole two years of education from children, sent thousands of businesses under, and caused mass hysteria when only 209,000 deaths weren't people already deathly sick," Greg Price, a senior digital strategist for X Strategies LLC, a political consulting and digital marketing firm, said.

There have been 836,000 covid deaths in America. \n\n75% of 836K is 627,000.\n\nThis means they shut down the country, stole two years of education from children, sent thousands of businesses under, and caused mass hysteria when only 209,000 deaths weren't people already deathly sickhttps://twitter.com/LucasFoxNews/status/1480566096113680388\u00a0\u2026
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1641835199

These critics and others thought Walenksy's comments confirmed a long-held suspicion by many people skeptical of COVID-19 lockdowns and government mandates that reported COVID deaths were inflated by counting deaths with COVID alongside deaths from COVID.

Data from New York, for instance, shows that more than 40% of all COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state are patients that were admitted to the hospitals for reasons other than coronavirus infection or were complications from the virus. Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) ordered hospitals to start differentiating why COVID-19 patients were initially admitted in their daily COVID reports.

Walensky was asked directly about this issue on "Fox News Sunday," hosted by Bret Baier.

"Do you know how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to COVID are from COVID or how many are with COVID, but they had other comorbidities? Do you have that breakdown?" asked Baier.

"Yes of course with Omicron we're following that very carefully," Walensky responded. "Our death registry of course takes a few weeks ... to collect. And of course Omicron has just been with us for a few weeks. But those data will be forthcoming."

Her non-answer only frustrated her critics, who demanded to know when that data would be released so that science, not fear of death from COVID-19, would inform policy makers with the power to close schools, businesses, and mandate masks or vaccination during a pandemic.

CDC Director: Racism, the Next 'Serious Public Health Threat' | The News & Why It Matters | Ep 755

CDC Director: Racism, the Next 'Serious Public Health Threat' | The News & Why It Matters | Ep 755

CDC director: Michigan needs to shut down again



Biden administration officials are encouraging the state of Michigan to shut down again, denying the governor's pleas for more vaccines to manage surging COVID-19 cases.

Coronavirus cases in Michigan are spiking as the state reported the highest rate of new infections of any state in the nation over the weekend.

On Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) asked state residents to take a voluntary two-week pause on dining out, meeting in large groups, and sending children to school for in-person learning so that the spread of the virus would be slowed while the state continues to distribute vaccines.

Whitmer has asked the White House to send more vaccines to her state to combat the virus, arguing that vaccine distribution should be a priority in parts of the country with the highest infectious case rate.

But administration officials have repeatedly said additional vaccine doses will not be sent to Michigan as their priority remains distributing the vaccine to parts of the country with the highest adult populations per capita. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during a press briefing Monday that the federal government is "not in a place, nor will we be, where we take supply from one state to give them to another."

At a separate briefing, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said that Michigan needs to close businesses and return to lockdown policies enacted last spring to mitigate spread of the coronavirus.

"We know that if vaccines go in arms today, we will not see an effect of those vaccines — depending on the vaccine — for somewhere between two and six weeks. So when you have an acute situation, an extraordinary number of cases like we have in Michigan, the answer is not necessarily to give vaccines," said Walensky, who added that vaccines have a "delayed" effectiveness.

"The answer to that is to really close things down, to go back to our basics. To go back to our basics, to go back to where we were last spring, last summer. and to shut things down. To flatten the curve. To decrease contact with one another," she continued.

On Sunday, Gov. Whitmer told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that new variants of COVID-19 are presenting a challenge for the state as a leading cause of new infections. Even though Michigan continues to enforce a mask mandate and some of the strictest social-distancing requirements for restaurants, retail stores, and other places where people may gather, sickness and hospitalizations are on the rise.

"I think if we try to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work," Walensky said.

CDC director says all kids — vaccinated or not — should be back in class by September



School attendance should fully be in person as of September, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.

What are the details?

The nation's children should be attending physical school classes in September, Walensky said during an interview with ABC News, whether they are vaccinated or not.

"We should anticipate, come September 2021, that schools should be full-fledged in person and all of our children back in the classroom," she said in her remarks on school reopenings. "We can vaccinate teachers, we can test, there's so much we can do."

She added that children over the age of 12 years should be eligible for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by mid-May, so long as the Food and Drug Administration approves the biopharmaceutical company's application for emergency use.

According to the outlet, Walensky said she also "expects Moderna will soon follow Pfizer because those studies are currently underway."

"She said she is hopeful that by summertime there will be two vaccines available for children 12 and up," the outlet reported. "Johnson and Johnson is expected to start their pediatric trials in the months ahead."

What else?

In late March, Pfizer released data showing its COVID-19 vaccine 100 percent effective in children as young as 12 years old.

At that time, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the company hopes to use the vaccine on that age group ahead of the 2021-2022 school year.

"We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15," Bourla said in a statement.

Earlier in March, Pfizer-BioNTech embarked on a global study to test its vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years.

CDC director expects US coronavirus deaths to start falling by next week



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield indicated Thursday that coronavirus deaths in the United States should begin falling by next week as case numbers have continued to decline since late July.

So far since the start of the outbreak, the U.S. has reported more than 5.5 million cases and 170,000 deaths as a result of the virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. And over the last 24 days, the nation's seven-day average for daily deaths has consistently topped 1,000.

But that number is primed to fall, noted Redfield in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"You and I are going to see the cases continue to drop. And then hopefully this week and next week, you're going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop again," he predicted.

When states experience steady declines in case numbers — as several states across the Southern and Western regions of the country have recently — it typically means that death rates will follow.

"It is important to understand these interventions are going to have a lag, that lag is going to be three to four weeks," Redfield continued. "Hopefully this week and next week you're going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop."

Coronavirus Update From the CDC With Robert R. Redfield, MD youtu.be

Redfield said he would like to see the number of daily new deaths fall below 250, which has not happened since the start of the outbreak earlier this year.

In early July, before the start of what Redfield calls the "southern outbreak," the number of daily new deaths fell to roughly 500.

The director added that even as Southern and Western states such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona are improving, there are worrying figures coming out of "Middle America," in states such as Nebraska and Oklahoma.

"We're starting to see some of the cases now in the red zone areas are falling, but if you look at those states that are in what we call the yellow zone, between 5% and 10%, they're not falling, so middle America right now is getting stuck," he said. "This is why it's so important for middle America to recognize the mitigation steps that we talked about, about masks, about social distancing, hand washing, closing bars, being smart about crowds."