Who is allowed to defy the CDC? Everyone but Rand Paul?

After Sen. Rand Paul was suspended from YouTube this week for defying the government's COVID-19 guidelines, CNN became the first major media outlet to report that Dr. Anthony Fauci made similar comments about the ineffectiveness of cloth masks in a 2020 email, similar to Paul.

CNN also reported that just this month the former adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team, Dr. Michael Osterholm, said during an interview on their channel that “many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out.”

To date, it does not appear that Fauci or Osterholm have been banned from social media.

Progressive journalist Glenn Greenwald wants to know why NPR isn't banned from social media due to their recent public disagreement with the CDC.

Here's NPR with an article contesting CDC's claim that the Delta variant "is as transmissible as Chicken Pox." NPR says that Delta is very transmissible, but CDC's claim is false.

Why is it OK for NPR to contradict the CDC but not social media users?https://t.co/KH2CGik5Lr — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021

It's a good question. Who is allowed to contradict CDC dictates?

NPR: "In a leaked report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made a surprising claim about the delta variant of the coronavirus: It "is as transmissible as: - Chicken Pox,' the agency wrote in a slideshow presentation leaked to The Washington Post on July 26.

Chickenpox is one of the most contagious viruses known. Each individual can spread the virus to as many as '90% of the people close to that person,' the CDC reports.

Is the delta variant that contagious as well?

The short answer is no, says evolutionary biologist and biostatistician Tom Wenseleers at the University of Leuven in Belgium."

No? Who does NPR and this Tom Wenseleers think they are? Perhaps an institution like NPR is allowed to defy the CDC because of their stature?

Many would consider a duly-elected U.S. Senator who is also a doctor at that level too.