CNN Medical Analyst Hits CDC, Biden Administration on New Mask Guidelines: ‘They Got the Policy and Communication All Wrong’

CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen told Wolf Blitzer Tuesday night that the Biden administration has “ceded far too much responsibility” to the Centers for Disease Control, and described the messaging on masking guidelines as “quite a mess.”

Over the weekend, Wen wrote in The Washington Post about the CDC relaxing mask guidelines, “While many people happily shed their masks and celebrated the apparent end of the pandemic, others are concerned that with only 37 percent of the country fully vaccinated, this relaxation is premature and could lead to a resurgence of ­infections.”

Wen called the decision “an astounding strategic and tactical mistake.”

On CNN, Wen reiterated her concerns, calling the agency’s messaging around masks “confusing” and saying that the policy changes it has made have been “abrupt.”

I think what the CDC got right was the science, but they got the policy and the communication all wrong. And I actually think that President Biden needs to do something really fundamental, which is to clarify the role of the CDC. I think he and his team have ceded far too much responsibility to the agency. Look, I understand where they’re coming from. They want to follow the science, but listening to scientists is very different from allowing one scientific agency to make such a consequential decision as ending mask mandates.

To be clear, CDC guidelines are non-binding recommendations that many states and localities have used to inform their masking policies. Several states have continued to keep those mask mandates in place for now.

Wen gave the Biden administration credit for the large number of Americans who’ve been vaccinated, but suggested she’s concerned not enough people have been fully vaccinated to justify the end of mask mandates.

“What the Biden team can do right now actually is clarify this policy even more and say, ‘Essential businesses are different from bars, theaters, things that are optional,'” she said. “So maybe bars and theaters can say people can take off their mask if they want, but in grocery stories, in pharmacies –they are essential business [and] we really have protect people’s well being, including the most vulnerable.”

Watch above via CNN.