CNN Medical Analyst Calls Out Biden For Mask-Heavy, Socially Distanced Speech: ‘Sent the Wrong Message’
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President Joe Biden “missed his biggest opportunity to reduce vaccine hesitancy,” wrote Dr. Leana Wen in an op-ed for the Washington Post Thursday, referring to the masked and socially-distanced scene at his speech before a joint session of Congress.
“The problem wasn’t the content of his speech — it was the setting,” wrote Wen, a CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. Wen described the scene Wednesday night, with members of Congress seated far apart, everyone in masks (some appearing to be double-masked), and both Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visible with their masks behind the president during the entire speech.
“If I didn’t know better, I would have thought this was six months ago, before Americans had access to safe, highly effective vaccines,” she wrote. The masks and distancing protocols would have made sense, she explained, because those were “the only tools” we had then.
Biden, Harris, Pelosi, along with all other members of Congress and their staffs have had access to the Covid-19 vaccines for awhile now, and all Americans 16 years of age or older can get a vaccine as of earlier this month.
Wen also criticized the CDC’s “overly-cautious guidelines” for the same reason: “Already, a very damaging narrative is taking hold: If the vaccines are so effective, then why so many precautions for the fully vaccinated? What’s the point of getting inoculated if not much changes?”
She pointed out that former President Donald Trump’s approach — encouraging massive maskless crowds for his campaign rallies — had major flaws, but Biden’s overcautious approach had a price as well.
Instead, Wen argued, it would have been better if all attendees had been required to be vaccinated, and then been allowed to “walk into the room, take off their mask, sit next to one another, and listen to a presidential address — just as they did in 2019.”
This approach, wrote Wen, was backed by science and “would have sent an unequivocal message that vaccines are safe, effective and the key to ending the pandemic.”
