THE CDC DIRECTOR, DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY EMOTIONAL PLEA

THE CDC DIRECTOR, DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, EMOTIONAL PLEA FOR US TO FACE THE REALITY OF COVID19

108th in a Series

By Jackalyn Rainosek, PHD

Introduction:

I believe as an author of a book and many articles that there comes a time when using an entire article of someone else’s is needed. I have decided to use the article written by Philip Elliott, Time Brief, March 30, 2021 3:59 PM EDT, entitled, “In a Break with Washington's Usual Posture, the CDC Director Makes an Emotional Plea.” The reason I am doing this is we seem to have a mass of politicians and people who live in Texas that seem to be incapable of believing in science, accepting scientific information, and facing the reality that they have no clue about the impact of Covid19 today or in the future.

I feel dismayed by the lack of respect for other human beings and the selfish and self-centered attitudes of the people that refuse to wear a mask, because the governor of Texas told them they did not need to, or they have had the vaccine shots. They can get their needs met by doing what they want to do and build a case that they know more than the scientist and medical professions. I felt concerned that most of these individuals I have described and those who do care might not have the chance to read Elliott’s article.

Here is Philip Elliott’s article

It’s sometimes easy to forget that the leaders who guide this country through its toughest moments aren’t steely caricatures. We take comfort in the hardened hagiography of FDR responding to Pearl Harbor, Ronald Reagan’s reflection on the Challenger’s crew that “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God,” or George W. Bush’s return to the White House after a harrowing day of cat-and-mouse on Sept. 11, 2001.

So, it was a bit of a jolt when Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, experienced an emotional hiccup at a press briefing yesterday when she warned the public that COVID-19 still presents a real danger. We are approaching 10 weeks of Joe Biden’s team laying out facts and science to the public about the COVID-19 pandemic and his Administration’s response. Biden will occasionally comment on the situation, but unlike his predecessor, Biden knows his training is in law and senatorial politics, not virology or public health. Biden doesn’t need the spotlight the way Donald Trump did and does, and his team’s regular updates have been crucial in spreading information.

But Walensky took about a minute of personal privilege to break from the charts and studies to offer up a warning. The former head of infectious diseases at Mass General and one of the country’s best experts on HIV/AIDS, Walensky understands both personally and professionally what everyone around her is going through more than a year into the pandemic. And she’s not exempt from the emotional toll, either. When she made her first comments after Biden appointed her, she showed a spot of emotion. When she got her vaccine, the same, as Vogue noted in its excellent profile of the former Harvard professor.

But it was her impromptu remarks yesterday that sent the warning like a rocket around Washington.

“I’m going to pause here, I’m going to lose the script and I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom,” Walensky said. “We have so much to look forward to. So much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now, I’m scared.”

For one of the most powerful doctors in the world to say such a chilling truth should leave us all thinking twice about if that trip to the corner store can’t wait. The U.S. is seeing an uptick in new cases, up 14% over the last two weeks. We’re still in far better shape than we were right after the December holidays. But news of a raft of vaccines is giving Americans a potentially false sense that we’ve rounded the bend, according to Walensky.

It was the way she said it that made her warning especially stark. “Doom” is one of those words with clear emotional connotation. It’s a corresponding emotion to how we scroll through terrible news on our phones right now. It’s only a degree between doomed and damned. And here was one of the smartest people working on coronavirus telling us doom is at our door.

“I’m speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director, and not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer,” she said. “I so badly want to be done, I know you all so badly want to be done, we’re just almost there. But not quite yet. And so, I’m asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends.”

In a turn that few Americans can deploy with such effect, Walensky spoke of her own commute to Mass General. “I know what it’s like to pull up to your hospital every day and see the extra morgue sitting outside,” she said.

I will leave it to others to address how vulnerability is seen as strength when men find it and as weakness when women show it. Right-wing media are accusing Walensky of hyping fear and misstating science, but perhaps this is a moment when we should be celebrating the fact that at least the CDC head isn’t being subjected to the sexist attacks that have dogged female experts for decades.

The warning came as plainly as it could have. Doom is at the doorstep and it’s on us to keep it from coming inside. The fact the voice rendering the warning belonged to a woman, or carried emotion, does not change the velocity with which this pandemic could be ricocheting around our communities again. The fact temporary morgues have parking permits at hospitals alone should be sufficient.

Conclusion:

I am asking you to send this article to as many people as you can. Please put this article on your Facebook page, LinkedIn, and any other social media sites. Refuse to sit with someone that is a part of the group that wants to deny the existence of the coronavirus threat to all of us and take these comments from an exceptional medical professional to these people. They may not accept the statements; however, they at least have heard Dr. Walensky’s comments. Keep wearing your mask even though you have been vaccinated, and support organizations that encourage people to wear masks, respect distancing, and support all of our efforts to move through these challenging times. Know that I take these positions, since I support and believe in professionals that have spent their life professionally and personally to be ready to deal with pandemics, which are significant challenges. Go to our website, www.dtp-leadership.com, if you would like to read more of the articles and videos I have created. I feel grateful to all of you that read my articles or listen to my videos. 

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