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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. walensky's 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 the around them. there's been frustration here at the white house with the cdc messaging and i'm also...

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 is very hard right now because, as you know, this -- this virus is throwing some very different dif...

With the omicron cases rising, and we're working really hard to get information to the american public and balancing that with the realities we're 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, it's 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 guidelines without undergoing some of the rigorous vetting processes that the cdc typically has. the white...

Mandate, the agencies can only act when congress explicitly gives them the power, a there's 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 couldn't keep an eviction moratorium that was enacted because of the pandemic just saying that the cdc didn't have the power, so a similar argument here. here's the chief justice explaining his skepticism on this. >> you're saying that congress acted. don't c...

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 heller personally. i know she's working incredibly hard. i know she's trying to do the best to get ...