CDC boss, Rochelle Walensky to have more press briefings by herself

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is admitting that the messaging around the COVID-19 pandemic and changing guidance should have been clearer.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky made the admission while speaking in during an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Walensky, who is being coached by media experts, is planning to have more press briefings by herself.

This is being done in order to ensure that the CDC, which is the national public health agency of the United States, is seen as an independent, scientific entity, rather than as a political one, the Journal reports. The CDC boss conceded that she has not conveyed the uncertainty in a lot of these (COVID-19) situations, giving a solemn commitment to communicating CDC guidance more clearly.

The CDC recently changed its isolation guidance to say that the people who have tested positive for the virus should isolate for at least five days, and did not initially recommend that a negative COVID test be the condition to end isolation. Walensky said the new guidance was based on more than 100 papers on the risks of the Alpha and Delta variants, before Omicron became the dominant strain.

As a result, the agency faced mounting criticism from health experts who say ending isolation after five days risks putting those contagious in contact with others but the CDC later added testing recommendations saying that anyone ending isolation who “has access to a test” and “wants to test” can do so.

This new language was added after it was clear that people wanted guidance on how to use rapid tests to check if they’re infectious. Walensky told the Journal, however, that rapid tests were not intended be used to test out of isolation, and that negative tests could work to measure infectiousness if they’re used repeatedly over several days.

“If you’re positive — you should probably stay at home,” Walensky said, “but a negative — that doesn’t mean you’re not contagious. And we needed to be very clear about that.”