CNN’s Berman Presses CDC Director on Mask Guidelines: ‘Why the Hell’ Do the Vaccinated ‘Have to Pay the Price’ for the Unvaxxed?

CNN’s John Berman pressed CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on the recently updated mask guidelines, questioning “why the hell” vaccinated people are stuck paying the price for those avoiding the shot.

“With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others,” Walensky said on Wednesday’s New Day. “But with the delta variant, we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations, we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”

She went on to explain that the CDC’s updated recommendations, which state, “To reduce the risk of being infected with the Delta variant and possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission,” are meant to alert the vaccinated of potential infection.

“That was the new science that prompted the guidance. And, it was not — it weighed heavily. I know this is not a message America wants to hear,” she added.

The message prompted Berman to ask why, just yesterday, the CDC published a science brief that claimed vaccinated people are far less likely to transmit the virus due to a reduced viral load — questioning if the information is no longer operative.

“The science that prompted this guidance is just days old. And in the coming days you will actually see the published information on the science that motivated this change,” she responded, later clarifying that the vast majority of Covid-19 transmission is still coming from unvaccinated people.

However, while transmission is predominantly occurring between unvaccinated people, Walensky noted that the CDC wanted “people who are vaccinated to understand they could potentially pass this virus if they were one of those breakthrough infections.”

Berman then questioned why those who have taken their shots need to mask up, asking, “You can understand the frustration in those of us who are vaccinated saying, ‘Why the hell do I have to pay the price for this?'”

“Right,” Walensky admitted. “So we’re asking everybody in those areas of orange and red to mask up. Here is the reason why — if you’re a vaccinated person and you’re in one of those areas, as you said, a sea of red, a sea of Covid, you have a reasonably high chance, if nobody is wearing a mask, to interact with people who may be infectious.

“Every 20 vaccinated people, one or two of them could get a breakthrough infection. They may only get mild disease, but we wanted them to know that they could bring that mild disease home,” she continued. “They could bring it to others.”

Watch above, via CNN.