For Sen. Susan Collins, it was more than just a numbers game.
Collins, the Republican senior senator from Maine, questioned CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday during a Senate Health Committee about a New York Times newsletter that said a statistic in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline released last month saying “less than 10% ” of covid-19 transmission occurred outdoors was “misleading” because some say it’s actually much lower than that and closer to below 1% .
I understand the temptation to think that this figure doesn’t matter. But the reality is that continued focus on the outdoors distracts from the interventions that actually do help. A year of seeing people take off masks to walk into indoor restaurant, for example. https://t.co/Qe0ND5Lw6o
— Aaron Richterman, MD (@AaronRichterman) May 11, 2021
Republican lawmakers accused Walensky of allowing outside influence in the agency’s guidance to schools and being slow to recognize the low risk of outdoor transmission in its mask-wearing recommendations.
“We have unnecessary barriers to reopening schools, exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission and unworkable restrictions on summer camps,” Collins said. “It matters because it undermines public confidence in your recommendations.
“I’ve always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don’t anymore,” Collins told Walensky, citing the article.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) tells CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: “I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don’t anymore.” pic.twitter.com/pWim7VX9V3
— The Recount (@therecount) May 11, 2021
Walensky stood behind the CDC’s guidelines that she said is developed with “stakeholders and consumers” before being finalized, defended school recommendations by pointing to immunocompromised populations and got personal when responding to criticism about whether kids at summer camps need to wear masks.
“I recognize some parents want to see how it goes, but I am encouraging all children to be vaccinated. And I am also encouraging children to ask for the vaccine,” Walensky said. “I have a 16-year-old and I continue he wanted to get the vaccine. He wants his life back.”
CDC Director Walensky pushes back on Susan Collins's attacks on CDC guidance pic.twitter.com/38pFyNWyS2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 11, 2021
