Fauci warns 'any degree' of COVID-19 restrictions may return if there's another viral surge



The Biden administration's top public health officials are warning that a highly infectious coronavirus subvariant now spreading in the U.S. could herald the return of COVID-19 restrictions, including mandatory masking or potentially even lockdowns.

U.S. officials are closely monitoring the BA.2 Omicron subvariant's spread in America after this strain of the coronavirus caused a surge of infections in Europe. Authorities in the United Kingdom have estimated that this subvariant spreads 80% faster than the original Omicron strain, although it does not appear to be more likely to cause hospitalization.

Even so, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday warned that Americans are likely to experience a surge in COVID-19 cases just like Europe, and depending on its severity, the government may put some restrictions back in place.

"We generally follow what goes on in the U.K. by about two to three weeks. So we better pay close attention to what's going on there.," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper in an interview.

"What they're seeing is an uptick in cases that are related both to the increased transmissibility to the virus, the waning of immunity, but also the fact that they're opening up the way we are here and the way other countries in other parts of Europe and other parts of the world and pulling back on mask mandates and things like that," Fauci said.

He attributed the lifting of coronavirus restrictions to "an uptick in cases," but noted that scientists in Europe are not reporting an increase in severity of disease.

"For example, their ICU bed usage, their intensive care unit bed usage is not up, and the overall mortality, the overall all-cause mortality is actually down," Fauci said. "So it's a very interesting situation where the cases are going up, but it does not at this point in time appear to be any degree of severity."

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky made similar comments Thursday, observing that the spread of BA.2 in Europe indicates that the U.S. is likely to see an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as restrictions intended to slow the spread are ended.

"We're following this very carefully. We might expect as we open up, as well as we relax many of our mitigation strategies, that we may have some increase in cases related to BA.2," she said.

At the end of February, the CDC created a new framework for evaluating the severity of COVID-19 in America, and under that framework the agency determined that about 70% of Americans lived in parts of the country where it was safe to ditch face masks. In accordance with that guidance, many states and localities that were hesitant to drop mask mandates have now done so.

Fauci said the CDC was not wrong to change its guidance, but cautioned that the government must remain "flexible" and adapt to new circumstances in the event a future coronavirus strain proves to be dangerous.

"We need to be flexible, and if in fact we do see a turnaround and a resurgence, we have to be able to pivot and go back to any degree of mitigation that is commensurate with what the situation is," Fauci said.

The pandemic is not over, he warned, and that means COVID-19 restrictions are still on the table if things get worse.

"We can't just say that 'we are done now; we're going to move on.' We've got to be able to be flexible, because we are dealing with a dynamic situation."

He also emphasized the need for people who have been vaccinated to get a booster shot, if they have not already, because of "waning immunity."

"Only about 50 percent of the people who were eligible to be vaccinated have gotten their boost. And we still have only 65 percent of the total population fully vaccinated," Fauci said. " If we want to be able to have a buffer against the possibility of there being a resurgence, there are things that we can do right now about that."

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.

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.

Fauci and Walensky suggest new CDC rules aren't based solely on science — but on what 'people would be able to tolerate'



The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under fire from health experts and employee groups that say the new COVID-19 isolation and quarantine guidance doesn't follow the science. The critics are saying the government is changing the rules for practical reasons — to keep the economy from shutting down — and comments from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci indicate the critics have a point.

On Monday, the CDC rolled out new guidance shortening the time people who test positive for COVID-19 are recommended to isolate before interacting with other people. Previously, a person who tested positive for the virus was supposed to quarantine for 10 days. Now, the CDC says people who test positive are asked to isolate for five days and then, if they have no symptoms, they may leave quarantine as long as they wear a mask around others. The new guidance applies to everyone, regardless of vaccination status.

But here's what's causing controversy: The new guidelines do not require a person in quarantine to test negative for the virus before leaving isolation after five days. They are also silent on the type of mask a person leaving quarantine should wear, even though the weight of scientific evidence suggests that cloth masks, which are highly popular, are not that effective at stopping transmission of the Delta or Omicron coronavirus variants.

Fauci and Walensky insist the change is based on science demonstrating that most COVID-19 transmission happens 1-2 days prior to the onset of symptoms and 2-3 days afterward.

Health experts commenting on social media criticized the lack of a testing recommendation, with one epidemiologist going so far as to call the guidance "reckless."

CDC\u2019s new guidance to drop isolation of positives to 5 days without a negative test is reckless\n\nSome ppl stay infectious 3 days,Some 12\n\nI absolutely don\u2019t want to sit next to someone who turned Pos 5 days ago and hasnt tested Neg\n\nTest Neg to leave isolation early is just smart
— Michael Mina (@Michael Mina) 1640645077

On Tuesday night, Fauci went on MSNBC with host Chris Hayes to defend the new guidance. Hayes was clearly skeptical of the new rules, asking if there was actual science behind the change or if the CDC made a "policy judgement" based on certain "trade-offs" — like making sure that America's infrastructure doesn't shut down because essential workers are forced to quarantine for 10 days if they test positive for COVID.

.@chrislhayes pressed Fauci tonight on new CDC guidance.\n\nHAYES: Is there any science backing up the idea that after 5 days\u2026 you\u2019re not still shedding virus?\n\nFAUCI: This is one of those situations\u2026 that we often say, you don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good.pic.twitter.com/NVSqfZ8yUk
— Dan Diamond (@Dan Diamond) 1640752693

"Nothing is going to be 100%," Fauci answered, calling the CDC's decision a "difficult situation."

"You don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good," Fauci said, arguing that after five days, mask-wearing should provide enough protection against virus transmission for asymptomatic, COVID-positive people to leave quarantine.

Walensky echoed Fauci's comments in an interview on Wednesday morning, but was even more forthright about how the CDC considered people's resistance to coronavirus restrictions before coming to its decision.

CNN's @kaitlancollins: "It sounds like this decision had just as much to do with business as it did the science."\n\n@CDCDirector Dr. Rochelle Walensky: "It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate."pic.twitter.com/Ek3X3S7Q9S
— The Recount (@The Recount) 1640784051

"It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate," Walensky admitted.

Both Fauci and Walensky have also vigorously denied that the lack of a testing requirement is due to limited supply of virus tests in the U.S., contradicting multiple news reports on the CDC's decision-making.

CNN reported Tuesday that a shortage of tests factored into the administration's decision, quoting a senior administration official.

"If we require a test, people are going to say, 'What if we can't get a test?'" the official told CNN. "Rather than letting the perfect be the enemy of the good," the official said, the CDC went with looser restrictions, although the official noted that "best practice would also include a test for SARS-CoV-2 at day 5 after exposure.”

The New York Times corroborated that report: "A scientist who has discussed isolation policy with the C.D.C. in recent months said that officials said the agency could not recommend rapid tests while supplies were so scarce. The scientist spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential discussions."

But Fauci has outright denied that claim. "The reason the CDC gives is not because there is a shortage of tests," he told CNN on Tuesday. Walensky said the same thing Wednesday morning.

"This really had nothing to do with supply. It had everything to do with knowing what we would do with the information when we got it," she told CBS.

So Fauci and Walensky have admitted the policy change was not based solely on scientific evidence, but other considerations as well. And they appear to be lying about, or at least obfuscating, the factors that went into the CDC's decision.

As for their claims about COVID infections not being contagious after five days, some health experts who spoke to the New York Times disagreed. Yonatan Grad, an associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the CDC's policy "feels honestly more about economics than about the science."

“I suspect what it will do is result in at least some people emerging from isolation more quickly, and so there’ll be more opportunities for transmission and that of course will accelerate the spread of Covid-19,” he told the Times, adding that people are unlikely to strictly follow the CDC's masking guidelines after returning from quarantine.

“I don’t think reducing the time for isolation overall is a bad idea,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “But saying, ‘Five days is probably OK, based on Delta, so let’s give it a shot and see,’ is really not what you should be doing.”

Labor groups have also protested the guidance, fearing that employers will require sick employees to return to work after five days, when they might still be contagious.

“It’s only going to lead to more illness, more cases,” said Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, during an appearance on CNN.

Sarah Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told CNN separately that her union is concerned that the CDC changed its policy after receiving pressure from business groups to do so. Last week, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and company chief health officer Henry Ting, along with medical adviser Carlos del Rio, sent a letter to Walensky urging the CDC to shorten the isolation period from 10 days to five.

"Our concern is that this is putting all the onus on the workers and when you put policies forward that are pro-business and not grounded in public health, it gives people reason to pause and not trust our public health requirement," Nelson said.

The problem is that even people who were fully compliant with social distancing, masking, and vaccination mandates are testing positive for COVID-19. Hundreds of flights were canceled over Christmas weekend because flight crew members tested positive for COVID, despite airline employee vaccine mandates, and had to call in sick, without anyone to replace them.

Faced with a virus that is continuing to infect even those that have fully complied with the government's guidance, the Biden administration can either continue to insist that people adhere to its recommendations — which will shut down the economy again — or they can change the guidance to keep the economy open. It appears they have chosen the latter, frustrating health experts.

"I wish they just came out and said [the real reason]," George Washington University public health professor and former Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen said on CNN Tuesday, according to The Hill. "Tests actually are needed to exit isolation, but if we don't even have enough tests right now to test symptomatic people, then we cannot possibly issue a guidance for all of America to exit isolation that way."

(h/t: Hot Air)

CDC restarts gun violence research; Director Walensky wants gun rights activists to be involved



U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky is restarting the agency's discontinued gun violence research program, expanding the bureaucracy's mission beyond controlling and preventing infectious disease to include studying what President Joe Biden has called a "gun violence public health epidemic."

In an interview with CNN published Friday, Walensky called gun violence a "serious public health threat" and said "something has to be done about this."

According to CNN, an average of 200 people have been killed and 472 people were injured by guns each weekend this summer, not including suicides. The network's Gun Violence Archive reports more than 15,700 people in the U.S. have committed suicide with a firearm so far this year.

"I swore to the President and to this country that I would protect your health. This is clearly one of those moments, one of those issues that is harming America's health," Walensky said.

Under her direction, the agency is spending more than $2 million to fund an initiative that provides surveillance data in near-real time on emergency visits to the hospital for nonfatal firearm injuries. The CDC is tracking the intent of the injuries, whether they were intentionally self-directed (a suicide attempt), an unintentional accident, or related to an assault.

The CDC is also spending more than $8 million on 18 different studies to investigate gun violence and means of preventing injury from firearms.

Examples of those studies include looking at the effectiveness of a suicide awareness program in Colorado gun stores or studying whether a Vermont program to educate children about how to safely use and store firearms prevents injuries.

A 2015 study cited by CNN estimated that 4.6 million children in the U.S. lived with loaded and unlocked firearms in their households.

Walensky said that CDC funding for this research is meant to learn what causes gun violence, how widespread the issue is, and what means of prevention can be applied nationally to mitigate injury or death from firearms.

"My job is to understand and evaluate the problem, to understand the scope of the problem, to understand why this happens and what are the things that can make it better — to research that, to scale that up, to evaluate it and to make sure that we can integrate it into communities," she told CNN. "We have a lot of work to do in every single one of those areas because we haven't done a lot of work as a nation in almost any of them."

Walensky denies that the CDC is interested in advocating for gun control, going so far as to avoid using the word "gun," preferring the term "firearm" instead.

"Generally, the word gun, for those who are worried about research in this area, is followed by the word control, and that's not what I want to do here," she explained. "I'm not here about gun control. I'm here about preventing gun violence and gun death."

She told CNN that her hope is for gun owners and Second Amendment activists to cooperate with the CDC to promote gun safety and reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by firearms in the U.S. The CDC director was insistent that her programs are not about taking people's guns away.

"This is not a conversation about having them or not having them. This is a conversation about how we can make them being here safe," she said. "The research that we intend to do is going to be squarely about making America safe. Making people safe."

She invited gun owners to "come to the table. Join us in the conversation," telling them, "I want you to teach me what you have done to make your gun safe, and then I want you to teach everybody else."

"We cannot understand the research of firearm violence, firearm injury, without embracing wholeheartedly, the firearm owning community," she added. "I really do believe that the population of people who wants to own a gun doesn't want people hurt by them. The majority of the population does not want people hurt by them. I want them at the table."

The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Walensky's remarks.

In the 1990s, the organization successfully lobbied Congress to cut the CDC's funding for gun violence research and implement a ban on further funding.

That ban was reversed in 2018, when Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a spending bill that permitted the CDC to study gun violence. In the following year, Congress approved an agreement that gave $25 million to the CDC and the National Institutes of Health to research gun violence. At the time, Republican lawmakers criticized the effort as a means by which left-wing gun control activists would come up with scientific studies to claim that gun control is needed as a matter of public health to prevent injuries and deaths.

But the CDC has actually studied gun violence for years, despite the apparent ban on doing so. In 2013, President Barack Obama ordered the CDC to research gun violence following the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

The agency funded and published a report with findings that, contrary to the expectations of gun rights and gun control activists alike, did not support common claims made by the left regarding gun violence. The CDC found that using guns in self-defense is in fact a common occurrence, that gun buyback programs are not effective at reducing crime, and that there are "consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies."

Still, the fact that a federal agency designed to control and prevent infectious disease is expanding its mission to include researching gun violence will be controversial. The CDC on Thursday was rebuked for overreaching into issues that are barely related to public health when the Supreme Court struck down the agency's moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus pandemic.