Outgoing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Delivers Final Message to Americans: ‘Be on Guard Against Misinformation and the Politicization of Science’
In one of her final swan songs as the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a warning to the American people: Be on guard against misinformation and the politicization of science.
The advice might seem ironic coming from an agency frequently accused of misinformation and the politicization of science.
In one of her final interviews as director of the CDC, Walensky told The Wall Street Journal that she hopes Americans will make health decisions based on “their own risk assessment and their own personal risks, but not through politics,” a sentiment that should have ideally guided her leadership.
Walensky’s fraught tenure was characterized by an evident lack of strong leadership and inconsistent messaging. Critics argue that her leadership, or lack thereof, appeared to be influenced by politics, leading to a quarter of Americans distrusting the CDC’s health recommendations, according to a 2022 survey.
OMG – says the biggest spreader of misinformation on the planet. https://t.co/dbBlk4OZjh
— Catturd (@catturd2) July 3, 2023
More from Wall Street Journal:
Political partisanship has, in many ways, defined Walensky’s tenure as CDC director. People on the right were more likely to push back against the agency’s pandemic guidance on quarantines, distancing and masking, compared with those on the left, while Democrats were more likely to be vaccinated than Republicans, according to polls. Political partisanship was a stronger national predictor of Covid-19 vaccination than any other demographic factor, according to KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Walensky said that public health shouldn’t fall along partisan lines. “Some of our biggest divides were based on jurisdictions and how they voted,” Walensky said of Covid-19 vaccination rates.Critics have contended that the CDC itself is politicized, that its recommendations and policies were influenced by politics and that it gave conflicting recommendations to the public. About a quarter of Americans said they lacked trust in the CDC’s health recommendations, according to a 2022 survey of around 4,200 people published in the journal Health Affairs earlier this year.Walensky acknowledged missteps in communicating during the pandemic, such as not making it clear that the agency’s guidance could change as the pandemic evolved. Some Biden administration officials had said that the CDC’s explanations of new and amended guidelines were sometimes hard to grasp.
“We probably could have done a better job saying, ‘Watch this space,’” she said.Walensky said she found it difficult to balance health messaging for the scientific community and the general public. “We had to do both, at the same time, in the same 90-second sound bites,” she said.
Walensky admitted last year that the agency would be undergoing a restructuring, calling it a “reset” due to major “mistakes” in dealing with the pandemic.
The CDC’s COVID-19 guidance was found to be “confusing and overpowering” in a recent report, according to NYT.
“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in the email sent to the agency’s 11,000-person staff.
“As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better,” Walensky said per Politico.
During the height of the pandemic, the CDC announced a 60-day moratorium on evictions.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky acted independently and signed the order – no congressional authorization needed. Walensky is queen and what she says goes.
‘This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads,’ Walensky said. ‘Such mass evictions and the attendant public health consequences would be very difficult to reverse.’
The Supreme Court eventually struck down Walensky’s unconstitutional moratorium.
Walensky admitted to Congress that vaccinated people can spread the COVID virus.
This is after she said vaccine misinformation was one of the biggest health threats.
Walensky was also behind the push for the child masking policy in the US.
Due to the disinformation spewed by the CDC and others, they have ZERO credibility.
First, they misled us into believing that the vaccination would prevent the illness from spreading further.
The biggest threat to people’s health is lies. Lies, in particular those told by the CDC, Fauci, big pharma, and the media.
Biden: „You‘re not gonna get Covid if you have these vaccinations.“
Fauci: „Vaccines prevent getting infected.“
CDC: „Vaccinated people do not carry the virus.“ pic.twitter.com/T7vEF1m2mf
— TomBayou (@Tom_Bayou) December 11, 2022
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