Did the CDC Director Just Accidentally Discredit Vaccine Passports?

Katie Pavlich | July 28, 2021 1:00 PM

During an interview with CNN Wednesday morning, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky was asked if vaccine passports should become the new normal in the United States.

During her answer, Walensky explained the main reason behind the CDC's new mask guidelines (a reversal from Many guidance) for vaccinated individuals.

"This is not about who needs to take responsibility, this is not really why we put this guidance out. We put this guidance out because the science demonstrates that if you are vaccinated you could potentially give disease to someone else," Walensky said. "In some fully vaccinated venues if they are unmasked and there are a few people who are transmitting there as a fully vaccinated person, it is possible to pick up disease in those settings."

JUST NOW: "That may very well be a path forward. "@CDCDirector on European-style health passes allowing extra access for people who are vaccinated.pic.twitter.com/K3GN9DuIg6
— John Berman (@JohnBerman) July 28, 2021

In this interview CDC Director says the following:

-Unvaccinated can infect the vaccinated
-Vaccinated can infect the vaccinated, which was the motivation behind reinstating mask guidelines
-Endorses vaccine passports, even though vaccinated can infect vaccinated https://t.co/Mv16XWIqRM
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) July 28, 2021

If vaccinated people can infect vaccinated people, then what's the point of a vaccine passport?

The vast majority of current hospitalizations and deaths from Wuhan coronavirus are people who are unvaccinated. CDC data shows vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections do not require hospitalizations and experience mild cases of the disease. Depending on specific health status, unvaccinated individuals experience a range of different cases that include asymptotic symptoms, mild symptoms, severe symptoms that require hospitalization and in some cases, death. Obesity and age are the two driving factors behind serious illness.

About 78% of people who have been hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died from Covid-19 have been overweight or obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new study Monday.
Just over 42% of the U.S. population was considered obese in 2018, according to the agency’s most recent statistics. Overweight is defined as having a body mass index of 25 or more, while obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or more.
The agency found the risk for hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths was lowest among individuals with BMIs under 25. The risk of severe illness “sharply increased,” however, as BMIs rose, particularly among people 65 and older, the agency said.