CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stopped by CNN to further confuse Americans looking for science-based updates on the latest COVID surge. Those who tuned in received a masterclass in “flying by the seat of my pants.” Walensky introduced the idea of “behavioral science” and policies informed by “what we thought people would be able to tolerate” when it came to shortening isolation periods.
Walensky really scrambles when CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins challenges her on the business nature of this decision as opposed to a strictly scientific approach.
“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” Walensky tells Collins. “We have seen relatively low rates of isolation for all this pandemic. Some science is demonstrating less than a third of people are isolating when they need to. And so, we want to make sure we have guidance in this moment where we were going to have a lot of disease that could be adhered to, that people were willing to adhere to, and that spoke specifically to when people were maximally infectious. So It spoke to both behaviors as well as what people were able to do.”
Watch the full clip above.