The very liberal CNN network has been all in with Team Biden on COVID-19 from the beginning.
But one nightly anchor had some serious questions on Tuesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reversed its stance and urged all people to once again wear masks, even those who have been vaccinated against the virus.
Host Erin Burnett sat down with Dr. Jonathan Reiner, CNN’s medical analyst. And she laid it all perfectly.
“I understand what you’re saying, but I also take a step back here and I say OK, first they said — and science and information can change, right? But we all remember at the very beginning here, mask up even if you’re vaccinated because you could spread it. And then, yay, guess what, you can’t spread it. And now, oh my gosh, now you can maybe spread it. And they’re making the change to the masking guidance based on unpublished data,” Burnett said.
The data — which the CDC did not present when making its announcement, “shows the vaccinated and unvaccinated people infected by the Delta variant can have the same viral load,” she said. “So, after changing it to ‘maybe you can spread it’ to ‘you definitely can’t’ to ‘maybe you can but it’s really rare’ — they’re telling you now it’s really rare but you have the same viral load.”
Then Burnett lowered the boom.
“I mean, Dr. Reiner, that’s why it’s really confusing. And it does beg the question of, do they really know or do they know things they’re not sharing with us? I mean it’s a credibility question, isn’t it? We don’t even know what ‘rare’ means?”
“Completely,” Reiner said. “Let’s see the data. All right, let’s, let’s be transparent. Let’s explain to the public what the problem is and what the fix is, and I don’t get that vibe from CDC now. Well, I think you can tell the American public that delta is bad. And because delta is bad, we need everyone to … mask up, both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” the doctor said.
“The American people will listen to that. Instead, you know, this story of occasionally, maybe vaccinated people can, you know, can, can spread the virus so, it just doesn’t ring true to me. It doesn’t ring true.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reversed course on Tuesday, recommending that vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the Delta variant of the virus is surging. The CDC also recommended masks for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors at schools nationwide.
During a call with reporters Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky tied the new guidance to the spread of Delta.
“We believe the vast majority of transmission is occurring in unvaccinated people and through unvaccinated people, but unlike the Alpha variant that we had back in May — where we didn’t believe that if you were vaccinated you could transmit further – this is different now, with the Delta variant, and we’re seeing now that it’s actually possible if you are a rare breakthrough infection that you can transmit further, which is the reason for the change,” she said.
President Joe Biden weighed in on the new CDC guidance. “The more we learn about this virus and the delta variation, the more we have to be worried and concerned. And there’s only one thing we know for sure — if those other 100 million people got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”
In a statement after the CDC’s guidance, Biden said: “When I ran for President, I promised to be straight with you about COVID—good news or bad. And I promised to follow the science. That strategy has worked: in my first six months in office, we’ve given out over 300 million shots—and have 60% of adults fully vaccinated and nearly 70% started on vaccinations. Cases are down, and deaths are down dramatically. One estimate suggests that our rapid deployment of the vaccine has saved 100,000 American lives—perhaps more.”
“Today’s announcement by the CDC—that new research and concerns about the Delta variant leads CDC to recommend a return to masking in parts of the country—is another step on our journey to defeating this virus. I hope all Americans who live in the areas covered by the CDC guidance will follow it; I certainly will when I travel to these areas,” he said.