On Friday night, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen suggested President Joe Biden missed an opportunity to remind Americans of what a pre-pandemic gathering looks like.

Wen told Cuomo Prime Time guest host Michael Smerconish that Biden could have arranged his joint address to Congress this week in such a way as to allow only fully vaccinated members of Congress to attend, thereby showing vaccine-hesitant Americans its value. Wen also wondered whether Biden is trying to overcompensate for the fact that his predecessor was notoriously skeptical of Covid-19 safety protocols.

I think that President Biden could have decided – and I recognize there is political risk here involved too – but he could have decided that he was only going to have fully vaccinated people who had proof of vaccination attend that joint session. And then in return they could enter – by the way, they could also get a negative test to be extra sure – but in return they could go into the chamber, take off their mask, have no distancing, hug one another and essentially return to 2019.

And then imagine if President Biden had started his address that way and said, “Look at where we are now. This is where the country can be at too. Let’s please get vaccinated.” I think that would have sent such a strong signal because, frankly, presidents are role models. They role model good public health behavior. The former president, Trump, really did a poor job of this and I wonder if President Biden is trying to overcorrect and be overly cautious here. But I think over-caution also has a price and that masks somehow become a performative act rather than a life-saving act when it’s really needed, and also, it’s really underselling the power of the vaccine.

A joint address in the House chamber only to members of Congress who’d been vaccinated would fall within the acceptable pandemic guidelines outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The CDC says it is safe for fully vaccinated people to “gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart.”

However, the guidelines advise that fully vaccinated individuals should still wear masks in indoor public settings where it is unclear if everyone present has been fully vaccinated.

Watch above, via CNN.

The post CNN Medical Analyst Warns Biden on ‘Overly Cautious’ Mask-Wearing: It’s ‘Underselling the Power of the Vaccine’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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