The CDC's director said the agency alone 'can't fix this public health crisis' as pandemic drags on
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- The CDC's director responded to criticism of the agency's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Rochelle Walensky told the Boston Globe in an interview that her agency has faced "curveballs."
- Walensky said the agency alone "can't fix this public health crisis."
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency alone "can't fix this public health crisis" as the COVID-19 pandemic inches toward its second anniversary amid a month of record-setting new case numbers.
"When there's a public health crisis, the public health agency is partly responsible," Rochelle Walensky said in a Tuesday interview with the Boston Globe.
But the "CDC alone can't fix this public health crisis," she added.
Her remarks came after acknowledging that the agency she helms has faced "curveballs" caused by mutations of the coronavirus, the report said.
Walensky told the Globe that people who have ignored what she called "crystal clear" guidance on vaccinations and mask-wearing, and also crippling public health infrastructure, have prolonged the crisis.
"We're making decisions in imperfect times, sometimes without all the data that we would like to make them," she said.
She added: "It's easy to criticize what's there — it's not obvious to provide the alternative."
The CDC has faced backlash for some of its messaging, particularly for the recent update on isolation guidelines.
In late December, the agency shortened its recommended isolation time for people who are infected with COVID-19 from 10 days to five days — as long as they don't have any symptoms.
At the time, Walensky told CNN's Katilan Collins that the shortened COVID-19 isolation guidelines were based on what the agency "thought people would be able to tolerate."
Nearly a month later, US is averaging around 700,000 daily new COVID-19 cases, according to the latest CDC data.
But that figure is actually slightly lower than the national average of nearly 800,000 daily new cases late last week — the highest daily average recorded throughout the entire pandemic.
Since late November, cases in the US have skyrocketed, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
As a result, COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit record levels, putting strains on the nation's healthcare systems.
White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said earlier in January, however, that since all hospital admissions are tested for COVID-19, many are "hospitalized with COVID, as opposed to because of COVID."
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