Replies

Butler’s quotes are in response to Betsy McKay of the Wall St. Journal.
however, what is interesting is what is the very first question from the media?
second, not one question or answer relates to the thousands attending BLM protests/riots!

12 Jun: CDC Media Release: Transcript - CDC Media Telebriefing: Update on COVID-19
Jay Butler: ...The good news is nationally we have been successful in flattening the curve. The number of new cases each day has been relatively plateaued over a prolonged period of time. But right now communities are experiencing different levels of transmission, and this is occurring as they gradually ease up on some of the community mitigation efforts and gradually reopen. We recognize that we are all getting tired of staying at home. People long for the life that they had back in December. As we live — as we head into the summer months, we know that Americans will be looking forward to reconnecting with family and friends and be able to attend events, and we want that to occur as safely as possible...

Every activity that involves interacting with others has some degree of difficulty right now. We want to provide you with the information and suggestions you need to make decisions about which activities may be able to resume and what level of risk you may have to accept...
We continue to ask everyone to follow the guidance of their state and local health authorities and also we all do our part to embrace prevention strategies, including social distancing as much as possible, maintaining a distance of at least six feet from other persons, washing your hands or using an alcohol-based hand cleaner on a regular basis, and wearing a face covering in public where appropriate.
We actually practice what we preach here at CDC. So for face coverings we get into the building wearing one. The face covering that I wear, I use this instead of a tie or socks to express my personality. So I have one, a cloth-based covering made with patterns of grizzly bears and salmon on them to show my homage to my home in Alaska. I also have one with an Alaska state flag on it. So these steps of social distancing, hand hygiene, and face covering can help reduce the risk of COVID-19-19 spread and protect those most vulnerable to severe disease...

FIRST QUESTION FROM MEDIA:
Mike Stobbe: Thank you for taking my call. So there are two sets of guidance. One of them is about holding or attending mass gatherings. That includes political rallies. Can you comment on whether the CDC is saying that political rallies are okay right now?

JAY BUTLER: Yeah, thanks for that question, mike. So, first of all, the guideline is really for any type of gathering, whether it’s the backyard barbecue or something larger. And it’s not intended to endorse any particular type of event, but to be able to be applicable to any type of event that may occur. So the most important things are some of those issues related to being able to maintain social distancing, having access to hand hygiene, encouraging face coverings, and, of course, not attending events if you are ill or have recently been exposed to COVID-19...

Lena Sun, WASHINGTON SUN: Thank you very much for taking my call, Dr. Butler, Dr. Redfield, and I hope we can continue this on a regular basis going forward. Regarding the mass gatherings, president trump has announced that he is going to hit the campaign trail next week. The RNC has also announced they are going to hold a convention and they are not going to ask people to wear masks. Given the considerations that you have put out here about wearing cloth coverings when people are singing or shouting or chanting, I’m wondering whether you need — whether the CDC is concerned about this way of seeding more infections as people are going to be in a closed indoor space and not wearing masks and what additional suggestions you might have.

JAY BUTLER: Thanks for that easy question, Lena. So the guidelines I think speak for themselves, and they are not regulations. They are not commands. But they are recommendations or even suggestions, is I believe how it’s titled, of how you can have a gathering that will keep people as safe as possible...

Carl O’Donnell, REUTERS: Hi, this is carl. So I just wanted to ask, there is a number of states, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina have, you know, significantly relaxed social distancing, and what we have seen is that that seems to have translated not only into higher case counts, which could be a function of testing, but also hire hospitalization rates. Do you guys have any concern that some states relaxed their social distancing measures too early?
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/t0612-covid-19-update.html