Your local experience may vary on this point. My Eye Doc, for example, is still high on masking, but the CDC has announced that it no longer recommends universal masking of Health Care Workers.
Related: Certified Industrial Hygienist Stephen Petty’s Senate Testimony on Why Masks Don’t or Can’t Work
The CDC dropped its universal masking guideline for healthcare workers after a weeklong slowdown in COVID-19 hospitalizations and nursing home infections nationwide, CBS News reported Sept. 23.
The change is one of the final sets of revisions to overhaul recommendations for COVID-19 since August. The CDC says healthcare facilities should still rely on its original “Community Transmission” benchmarks. This means over a quarter of counties nationwide can choose not to require masking in their facilities.
State and local authorities, hospitals, and facilities can and will continue to set their policies. As noted above, my Eye Doctor expects masks while the Vet no longer requires them. And that’s how it always should have been.
While we have published mounds of science on the ineffectiveness of masking and some genuine health risks caused by the practice, we’re not here to tell you whether to wear one or not. That’s none of our business. If you want to re-breath your exhaust all day, knock yourself out. We might laugh at you in your car all by yourself, but you be you.
Speaking of which, that appears to be what the UL and WMUR have done. They are just being who they are.
The CDC dropped a mask mandate, which sounds like a big deal, big news, a watershed moment in the arc of bad COVID mitigation policy history (even if you think it was good policy). Health Care workers don’t have to wear masks. The CDC said so!
I guess that’s not an exciting story for the local media, including the ABC affiliate. I couldn’t find any stories about Monday’s announcement.
And so what, you say, but so what, indeed. If the CDC had extended the mandate or reintroduced a new one, it would be above the fold, breaking public health news.
A nationwide decline in hospitalizations and nursing home infections promoted the change, but that’s not news either.
It is one more reason you can’t trust a damn thing they report. But we’re happy to fill the gap when we can.
