Plus The Cdc News Today

Missteps. jeremy diamond joining us live from the white house. officials at the cdc and the white house are frustrated. there have been some efforts, including on the part of dr. walensky, to try to fix this issue, but where do things stand? how did we get here? >> reporter: yeah, criticism of the cdc and of dr. walenskys leadership has hit a fever pitch in recent weeks amid the new isolation and quarantine guidelines and the messaging mishaps surrounding the guidelines. a lot of back and for th...

Happening right now. the reporting that we just had from jeremy, do you think the cdc has handled things well and specifically has dr. walensky handled this well? what needs to be done, if anything? >> well, let mow just say that cdc has the most qualified people to deal with this problem from the beginning of the pandemic, and they were initially sidelined but they were still working incredibly hard, and i know many of them personally, and i can tell you they are working as hard as they can. it...

With the omicron cases rising, and were working really hard to get information to the american public and balancing that with the realities were all living with. this is hard, and i am committed to continue to improve as we learn more about the science and to communicate that with all of you. >> reporter: but frankly, its not just a messaging problem. one cdc scientist i spoke with says the frustration stems from the way in which dr. walensky and her small circle of aides crafted these guideline...

Mandate, the agencies can only act when congress explicitly gives them the power, a theres skepticism about whether congress has done that. these conservative justices led by chief justice john roberts, they have repeatedly reined in agency power. it was just a few months ago in august that they told the biden administration that the cdc couldnt keep an eviction moratorium that was enacted because of the pandemic just saying that the cdc didnt have the power, so a similar argument here. heres th...

Therefore you would still have the possibility of getting infected so then they had to back down and say no, you need to go back to mask but the reality is that at the moment that the recommendations of taking off masks what is done it was the right information with the information available at that point but as the information changes the recommendations change and as a member of the public that is very confusing and also very frustrating. so i feel for the cdc and feel for dr. walensky. i know...

This just into cnn. the date for the state of the union is set. house speaker nancy please i officially invited president biden to deliver the address to congress on march 1st. in a letter to the president, she says, quote, i am writing to invite you to address a joint session of congress on tuesday, march 1st, to share your vision for the state of the union. also developing right now, the supreme court hearing oral arguments on president bidens covid-19 vaccine and testing mandates. with deta...

Changing, and we know it is, you and i talk about this, should dr. walensky be leading with that every time? this is what we know today. just a reminder, the science could change but as of today heres what the science tells us. would that help? >> yes. this is what my advice would be. i think dr. walensky needs daily if not every other day or third day press conferences where she and the experts talk to the media, not politicians and she talks to the media saying this is what we know today, what...

>> plus, disturbing new video of the capitol hill riot. one of the men seen here attacking police officers a retired police officer himself. we have the latest on his case, plus the cdc directors new warning about a covid variant. were live at the white house with what is being done about it and what we expect to hear from the president today. first, we would be remiss if we did not talk about the biggest news out here and that is that extreme heat wave. 40 million people under heat alerts thi...