CNN and HBO Max host Chris Wallace pressed Biden administration CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to say whether maintaining Covid emergency status is “just a way for the administration to hand out more federal goodies?”

This week’s new episodes of Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace premiered on HBO Max on Friday morning, featuring in-depth interviews with legendary record producer Clive Davis, controversial billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and Dr. Walensky.

Things got a bit adversarial when Wallace accused Walensky of “ducking” his question about the “welfare benefits” that come along with the state of emergency for Covid, which President Joe Biden has declared is no longer in the pandemic stage:

Wallace: I guess the question is, does the situation in terms of COVID — in terms of the central, you know, the public health situation justify these emergencies or is this just a way for the administration to hand out more federal goodies?

Walensky: You know, what I think that we need to understand is the public health emergency — and certainly this is a decision that lies with the secretary — but the public health emergency does unlock important things for us. it unlocks our ability to see data at the CDC, for example. It unlocks the capacity for emergency use authorizations of new tests that might be available. So there are certain things that the public health emergency does unlock, we do need a pathway towards commercialization of the therapeutics and vaccines that have gotten us out of this pandemic, or towards the end of this pandemic, but and all of those are at play. And in conversation, as I think the Secretary is thinking about, when is your –

Wallace: I mean, all of that makes sense. But does it justify $16 billion in welfare benefits every month?

Walensky: Right, so I think that the important question here is, are the things that that it unlocks so necessary in this moment, that it — because it unlocks a lot of things, and many of the things we need to get a pathway to commercialization of these products so…

Wallace: You’re kind of ducking the question about the benefits.

Walensky: Um, you know, I don’t mean to. I think that it unlocks a lot of things that have been really important as we’ve gotten out of it. And so, you know, there’s a lot in the basket of what the public health emergency does. And the question is, can we tease apart the things that we really need in this moment versus those other things?

Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops three full episodes each Friday morning, and CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes every Sunday at 7 pm.

Watch above via HBO Max and CNN.

The post Chris Wallace Pushes CDC’s Walensky on Covid Emergency ‘Welfare Benefits’: Is It Just A Way To ‘Hand Out More Federal Goodies?’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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