When CNN’s chief media correspondent Brian Stelter asked about the press’ role in covering the return to normal, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said, “We can report what the news is, but then we have to explain the relevance of it.”
Gupta said the CDC “made a critical error here in surprising basically everyone with a very significant change.” He added that just days before the announcement was made, he spoke to senior leaders at the CDC who told him indoor masking would probably be the last thing to be lifted because “it is so effective and it’s not that hard to do in most situations — just to put a mask on.”
Following sweeping changes to mask and social distancing guidance for fully vaccinated people, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that the agency is asking businesses to help workers get vaccinated.
“What we’re saying to those essential workers is that if those workers are vaccinated, they are safe,” she said. “We are really asking the businesses to work with their workers to make sure that they have the paid time off to get themselves vaccinated so they can be safe.”
— CNN’s Naomi Thomas contributed to this report