Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams says CDC ‘fumbled’ new mask guidelines

The former surgeon general said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “fumbled the ball at the 1-yard line” with how it communicated the mask guidance for vaccinated Americans — as the announcement spawned confusion across the country and even spark ed a skit on “Saturday Night Live.”

“I think this was an appropriate call based on the science,” Dr. Jerome Adams said Monday on CNN’s “New Day.”

“I think the play call was right, but they fumbled the ball at the one-yard line in terms of communicating this to the public.”

Adams, who served as attorney general under President Donald Trump from 2017 until Trump left office in January, said the new CDC guidance announced by Director Rochelle Walensky last week left his colleagues in the public health industry feeling “blindsided.”

“I think you miss the nuance about protecting yourself versus protecting an organization,” Adams said. “It was a little bit of whiplash for the American public in terms of them saying just a week before, ‘Keep your mask on’ and then all of sudden they’re saying, ‘Now you can take them off.'”

Walensky announced the new regulations last Thursday during a coronavirus briefing –even though only 45 percent of Americans have been fully vaccinated for the coronavirus.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” she said. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

Her announcement came as the Biden administration was coming under pressure to roll back the guidelines for vaccinated people as an incentive for reluctant Americans to get the shot as well as to acknowledge the low rates of contagion among the vaccinated. 

Walensky, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” was put on the defensive over the decision, saying the CDC followed the “evolving” science. 

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https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/former-surgeon-general-says-cdc-fumbled-new-mask-guidelines/

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Fox’s Chris Wallace grilled Walensky about going from informing vaccinated people on Wednesday that they need to wear a mask indoors and then, less than 24 hours later, telling them they don’t need one indoors or outdoors.

“Would you agree that this abrupt shift was not handled as well as it might have been?” he asked Walensky.

“And what’s also happening is we’re getting data, evolving data, on the science ,” she responded, pointing out two scientific papers in the past week that examined the data.

“And so taking all of these data together, we’ve been working really actively just this whole last week to try and move the science, move the data, to the American people and tell people — deliver the science to them,” she said.

The nation’s largest nurses union, National Nurses United, slammed the CDC for the guideline, claiming it “threatens the lives of patients, nurses and other frontline workers.”

“Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century,” said Bonnie Castillo, president of the union that represents more than 170,000 members.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said he and a lot of other governors were caught unawares.

“I found out about it in the news, just like the general public did,” Ricketts, a Republican, told Fox News.

He faulted the CDC and the Biden White House for dropping the ball on communicating the new guideline.

“We really need to see better communication from the Biden administration, better communication from the CDC when they’re going to make policy changes so we have a heads-up on this and then can use that when we’re making decisions in our own states,” he said.

“Saturday Night Live” lampooned the announcement in a cold-open skit.

The show opened with “a message from Dr. Anthony Fauci.” 

“It’s your boy, Fauci, the patron saint of Purell,” cast member Kate McKinnon said in her role as Fauci.

“The CDC announced that people that are vaccinated no longer need to wear masks, outdoors or indoors. Pretty great, right?” she said.

But “a lot of people had questions, such as, what does that mean? What the hell are you talking about? Is this a trap?”

https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/former-surgeon-general-says-cdc-fumbled-new-mask-guidelines/