Woman wearing a face mask walking outdoors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
getty
Last Friday, the CDC significantly loosened mask guidelines.
After fifteen months of a policy that was focused on the level of transmission in a community, the new Covid-19 Community Levels framework deliberately shifts the focus from infection to illness.
As reported by the Washington Post, some organizations are suggesting this change was made “because of the science”, i.e. because of new data. It was not.
Rather, the change of policy reflects a changing policy objective. Most importantly, vaccines were not yet available in September 2020, when the first framework (called “Indicators of Community Transmission”) was adopted.
As explained in a set of official CDC slides and a February 25 telebriefing, the CDC now thinks that high levels of population immunity and broad access to testing and therapeutics, along with the wide recognition that we will not ever be fully rid of Covid-19, means that public policy should be refocused on minimizing the impact of severe illness on health and the healthcare system.
What the new policy really means for individuals
According to the New York Times, the new guidelines “suggest that 70 percent of Americans can stop wearing masks” to “help communities get back to normal life”. Whoa. Not so fast.
In a footnote, the guidelines very clearly state, “At all levels, people can wear a mask based on personal preference, informed by personal level of risk.” This little qualifier is interesting to me for two reasons.
First, it seems to me to hint that the new policy is based on a conclusion by the CDC that the threat to public safety is no longer so great that people should be compelled to wear masks. But that is very different than saying that the threat has been reduced to some level that one might deem safe.
Second, in the dramatically changing circumstances of the ongoing pandemic, how is an ordinary person expected to assess their personal risk tolerance?
As of this writing, the CDC has not yet changed it’s guidance on small and large gatherings. The guidelines also do not change CDC recommendations about isolation and quarantine for people who have been exposed or have symptoms of Covid-19.
So, we can sum up the new policy as follows: The new guidelines are now about protecting community health systems. Individual safety is a matter of individual choice. Choose wisely.
