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CDC director Rochelle Walensky had to Google her own agency’s website when asked about advancing equity in the agency’s pandemic response, according to Fox News.
Over 500 pages of Walensky’s emails were obtained by a watchdog group called Americans for Public Trust (APT).
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows Americans to see what’s really happening behind closed doors.
These emails reveal the CDC director’s level of unpreparedness amid the pandemic.
One email from Walensky showed her thanking her staff for providing her “cover.”
During a live TV appearance, another email revealed the director had stealth searched for her own agency’s social vulnerability index (SVI), a tool used by the agency to provide equity-focused disaster assistance.
“Thanks — I’ve never googled while on live today so today was a first,” Walensky wrote in the email with a smiley face. “Found that and thank you for the scramble!”
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“The pattern of disarray in these emails is consistent with the haphazard messaging and politicized policies coming out of the CDC,” APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland said in a Thursday email to Fox News Digital on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, it’s not shocking that an unprepared and unaware Dr. Rochelle Walensky Googled key agency terms on live TV, given that she relied on teachers unions to write school reopening guidance,” she continued.
The revealing emails illustrate an apparent level of dysfunction and unpreparedness among President Biden’s top health prevention agency.
Additionally, the emails are reflective of the chaotic response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the Biden administration and other Democrats as they continue to prioritize racial equity in their disease response.
A spokesman for Walensky defended the CDC director in a Thursday email to Fox News Digital, claiming there was “important context missing” from the emails and that she “had only been on the job for 3 weeks when she was preparing for a live, televised interview.”
“Before the interview started, the interview producer informed Dr. Walensky that one of the topics would be CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). Dr. Walensky then requested from agency staff the 15 markers that made up the index to give an informed appearance,” Jason McDonald told Fox News Digital. “Knowing time was short and she was not likely to get a reply before the interview started, Dr. Walensky used a search engine to reach the CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) website to make sure she had the index markers correct.”
