The CDC's Ever-Shifting COVID-19 Advice Shows the Agency Is Ill-Suited To Decide Which Risks Are Acceptable

Beginning in April 2020, the CDC said face masks were an essential disease control tool, even for people who have been vaccinated.

Yesterday the CDC modified its advice again, saying fully vaccinated Americans generally do not need to wear masks outdoors or indoors, except when required to do so by businesses or the government.

'the most important, powerful public health tool we have' It seems clear that the CDC conflated two issues: 1) whether wearing face masks in public places was a sensible safeguard, and 2) whether there were enough commercially produced masks to supply the general public as well as medical workers.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, likewise questioned the effectiveness of general mask wearing while simultaneously saying that masks should be reserved for health care workers.

"These face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have," he told a Senate subcommittee while holding a cloth mask.

"Everyone. Why do we have to? We're all vaccinated. Why do we have to wear masks?" Walensky could have responded by noting that the most recent CDC guidance actually allowed Smith and his colleagues to take off their masks, as long as no unvaccinated people were around.

People have to weigh whether the tiny, possibly nonexistent risks that worry the CDC are worth the cost of forgoing enjoyable activities and the burden of masking and physical distancing.

https://reason.com/2021/05/14/the-cdcs-ever-shifting-covid-19-advice-shows-the-agency-is-ill-suited-to-decide-which-risks-are-acceptable/