'No one knows anything': Experts call on the CDC to release the data behind its new mask guidance

The Washington Post has a new article out this morning quoting numerous experts who are calling on the CDC to release the data behind it new mask guidance to, in theory, slow the spread of the Delta variant:

CDC reversal on indoor masking prompts experts to ask, ‘Where’s the data?’ – The Washington Post https://t.co/1CBdFq6SnA

— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) July 29, 2021

From the WaPo, “Show us the data”:

New recommendations from federal health officials this week on when vaccinated Americans should don face masks came with a startling bolt of news: People who have had their shots and become infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus can harbor large amounts of virus just like unvaccinated people. That means they could become spreaders of the disease and should return to wearing masks indoors in certain situations, including when vulnerable people are present.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not publish the new research. In the text of the updated masking guidance, the agency merely cited “CDC COVID-19 Response Team, unpublished data, 2021.”

Some outside scientists have their own message: Show us the data.

Yeah, flip-flopping on masks and then saying “trust us!” isn’t going to work and it’s good to see the CDC getting called out on it:

This is asking for trouble. You can’t cite “new data” and ask people to return to mask wearing without releasing the data.

CDC reversal on indoor masking prompts experts to ask, ‘Where’s the data?’ https://t.co/HUzjTE1sKs

— Steve Brown (@WGRZ_SteveBrown) July 29, 2021

Here is the whole story. No one knows anything. No one is collecting the necessary data. It would be overly generous even to describe policymaking as reactive, when it is something more like "3-year-old striking out at tee-ball."https://t.co/b1n6tIY4jE

— Jacob Bacharach (@jakebackpack) July 29, 2021

One interesting theory from the article, however, is this suggestion that vaccines have stopped lung COVID-19 cases which have now been replaced with much milder nose cases:

Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said it would not be surprising to see a variant emerge that is better at replicating in people’s noses. Animal studies, he said, indicated that vaccines were better at protecting animals’ lungs from infection than their noses. That might help explain why vaccinated people can become infected but rarely develop severe disease.

“The virus is under selective pressure to jump from nose to nose,” Corey said. “So its evolutionary sort of pressure is to do that as efficiently as it can. Delta is more efficient than others.”

And Rep. Dan Crenshaw joined in as well, calling out the CDC for using a non-peer-reviewed study in India using modeling based on a non-U.S.-approved vaccine to come to this conclusion:

Here’s the truth America:

The “game changer” data the CDC used for the mask mandate is from a single study from India.

The study was rejected in peer review.

But CDC used it anyway. pic.twitter.com/uqirPTCZUE

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 28, 2021

Then Research Square changed the status to “revise” and said it was a glitch. pic.twitter.com/y9NwTFg0LA

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 28, 2021

Even worse, the study followed healthcare workers vaccinated with a vaccine not allowed in the US. pic.twitter.com/lflItnHFz6

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 28, 2021

The CDC needs to release ALL of the data behind their decision, like right now:

Does the Administration have any more data to show us?

No, according to the latest from STAT pic.twitter.com/JZAPa2M9Qg

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 28, 2021

Yep: