CDC's Walensky says child masking will not change with time
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Congress that masking guidance ‘doesn’t really change with time’ but with the level of disease.
A Congressional hearing sent Twitter into a tailspin after Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that the public health agency's mask guidance for children "doesn't really change with time."
Sitting before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Walensky told lawmakers on Feb. 8 that the CDC will continue to recommend masks in schools in communities where COVID-19 levels are high.
Claiming that the CDC is the only national or international agency that recommends masking for 2-year-old children, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., asked Walensky to explain the process and timeline by which the CDC uses evidence to update, modify or withdraw current guidance.
A newly released review published by the Cochrane Library researched 78 controlled trials to determine whether various mitigation strategies, such as masking or handwashing, curbed the spread of COVID-19. The review found that mask-wearing in the community probably makes "little or no difference."
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Walensky said the study only includes randomized clinical trials that researched other respiratory viruses in addition to COVID-19. She noted that since COVID-19 can spread before symptoms occur, it is difficult to determine the accuracy of some of the study's conclusions.
"One of the limitations in that study was clearly stated that people were not actually engaged in the intervention — so you actually have to wear the mask for it to work," she said.
As Walensky continued to speak, Rodgers interjected, grabbed her podium mic, and asked why kids are still masked to this day.
The CDC chief said that the masking guidance depends on the virus's community levels and said it was fortunate that most communities are in the low or moderate range of spread, where masking is not recommended.
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"Our masking guidance doesn't really change with time — what it changes with is disease," she said. "So, when there is a lot of diseases in the community, we recommend that those communities and those schools mask. When there's less disease in the community, we recommend that those masks can come off."
Walensky's response about masking did not go over well with some prominent Twitter users, who claimed that the CDC was not following the most up-to-date science.
"So, still relying on the bogus study co-authored by not-a-doctor Ferrer's staff and her not-a-doctor daughter?" Red State Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar tweeted.
She then linked to a story on Red State's website that detailed a study finding COVID mitigation efforts in schools, including forced masking, were highly effective tools in stopping the spread of the virus. The study, used by the CDC and numerous states as the basis for school mask mandates, was authored by Los Angeles County officials, including Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer's daughter, who does not have a doctorate.
University of Toronto Assistant Professor J.D. Haltigan called Walensky "innumerate" and her comments "utterly ridiculous."
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"'Follow the science' except when it limits the overreach of your power," author and clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson tweeted.
WSB Radio legal analyst and Townhall columnist Philip Holloway wrote, "After all the @CDCgov mask nagging, mandating, coercing and ordering, badgering and shaming, I guess expecting them to follow real science and reverse course on masks is too much to expect. Instead @CDCDirector shows her sunk cost bias and digs her heels in."