The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing has to do with policy decisions the CDC made during the pandemic, with lawmakers set to ask questions regarding public guidance, mask mandates and school reopenings.
Walensky is likely to face some harsh questioning on Tuesday, with committee chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) blasting the policies from the CDC as having “wreaked havoc on American society” in a press release.
Other GOP members of the committee have routinely criticized the Biden administration’s COVID-19 policies, with Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) lambasting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for infants and Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) denouncing booster shots.
Walensky is stepping down as head of the CDC at the end of this month, having announced her departure in May. In a statement at the time, Walensky cited the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, which defined nearly her entire tenure at the CDC, as a “tremendous transition” for the country.
Her time at the agency saw the deployment of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine campaign as well as the monkeypox outbreak of 2022.
The rapidly changing and at times unclear nature of the COVID guidance coming out of the CDC became a reoccurring point of criticism during her time as well.
In response to these criticisms, Walensky carried out an agency-wide reorganization, which focused on streamlining communication.
While much of the subcommittee’s actions under the GOP majority have had to do with looking into the origins of the pandemic, with many of the Republican members holding an interest in the lab-leak theory, the panel has turned a retrospective eye toward policy as well.
Last month, the panel held a hearing looking into nursing home mortality and the COVID-19 policies that affected these rates.
