A third senior administration official expected the guidelines to be announced “soon”. A fourth said the main guidelines on Covid-19 go through ‘strict discussions’ in the last few days before release.
“The leadership of CDC will not be placed tomorrow because we have not completed it here at CDC. “Once it is final, we will publish and distribute it,” said Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the agency.
There is no evidence to suggest that the Biden White House is trying to suppress the CDC guidelines or suppress the judgment of CDC scientists.
But officials within the country’s health institutions are on the run after years of repeated political interference by the Trump administration, which the CDC has notoriously cut out of critical policy talks on Covid-19. And Trump appointments at HHS have regularly interfered in the agency’s weekly reports of morbidity and mortality, as first revealed by POLITICO.
The CDC’s guidelines for vaccines, as described to POLITICO earlier this week, were supposed to say that those who received a complete vaccine could be in small groups in the house without masks with other vaccines. But the guidelines said that vaccinated individuals should still adhere to the mask and public social distance guidelines. The guidelines were also set up to include various scenarios that vaccinated people might consider, including travel.
As vaccination picks up, Americans are eager to get back to normal. And while CDC director Rochelle Walensky has repeatedly said the country needs to stay vigilant, the draft roadmap is going to give Americans a glimmer of hope – that the US is heading in the right direction.
The guidelines were originally drawn up when the US had only two vaccines available, from Moderna and Pfizer, said one of the senior administrative officials. The FDA recently approved the use of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the administration is in the midst of sending millions of doses to states across the country. But even if the Moderna and Pfizer shots are given in two doses, and J & Js as one, it takes about 14 days after the final dose of each before the immunity develops.
CDC’s leadership would appear at a time when the White House and Biden’s Covid-19 task force are trying to push back against governors in Texas and Mississippi who have reversed mask mandates and fully reopened their economies. Since those announcements on Tuesday, several White House officials, including the president himself, have denounced the decision. Biden said during a press conference on Wednesday that the move to relax public health measures reflects “Neanderthal thinking”.
Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.