Contradictory CDC COVID guidelines

On 8/7/22 the CDC reported that it would maintain its pandemic recommendations on masking, testing and isolating. They also continued to recommend that "people should still use high-quality masks indoors in areas with high levels of Covid transmission. And people who have tested positive should isolate for at least five days, then wear a mask at home and in indoor public places up through day 10."

It was based on nearly 500 deaths and almost 136,000 new cases per day. At that time Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist and associate professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, noted that "it's reasonable to suggest that holding onto interventions is a good idea as we move into the fall and winter, which are likely to be worse."

Then on 8/11/22 the new CDC guidelines came out. Schools and institutions don't need to screen people anymore. No more social distancing. No more quarantining for the unvaccinated. If you do contract it there's no need for a negative test before ending a more limited 5-day quarantine. According to the CDC stats there are still 94,000 new cases and nearly 400 new deaths per day. The transmission levels continue to be high in 92% of US Counties.

And now Hanage said that the guidelines are "a concession to realism, to the way that a lot of people are handling this [and are] entirely reasonable." What a difference 4 days make, eh? Whereas Julia Raifman, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, said: "The CDC sets the bar on what should happen, like a speed limit. Instead, we have the CDC establishing that there are no speed limits and making it very difficult for state and local governments to set better policies."