U.S. SENATE– U.S. Senator Steve Daines today introduced the “Restore Public Health Institution Trust Act,” which would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision making surrounding its reversal on mask guidance for fully vaccinated Americans.
“The CDC’s flip flop on mask guidance sends a confusing message to Montanans and the American people, and has not been clearly justified with data,” Daines said. “The CDC needs to improve its communications with the public and stop undermining vaccine confidence.”
Read the bill text HERE.
This follows the CDC’s Tuesday announcement of new mask guidance to require indoor masking for all vaccinated individuals in areas reporting over 50 new cases per 100k individuals over the previous seven-day period. The CDC made this recommendation without providing a clear, verifiable justification for why the science on the Delta variant in July 2021 is supposedly different from the data in May 2021.
The Restore Public Health Institution Trust Act would require the GAO to review the below items and make recommendations on ways the CDC should improve their approach:
- The data being used to make recommendations;
- The impact that inconsistent messaging has had on Americans’ trust in the institution and willingness to follow the guidance, including as it relates to vaccine uptake;
- The degree to which outside entities, like teachers unions, were in a position to impact recommendations.
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Contact: Katherine McKeogh, Katie Schoettler