As a reminder, earlier in 2022, the CDC changed their COVID maps over to "Community Levels", which is more an indicator of whether hospitals are full, rather than transmission alone. It effectively downplayed the amount of COVID spread.

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Here's a good explanation from the People's CDC about why the CDC "Community Levels" map is problematic, and downplays the state of the pandemic, exposing more people to harm.

https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/03/peoples-cdc-covid-guidelines

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If it's true that the CDC is switching back to COVID community *transmission* for their masking guidelines, that's a good thing because people need to mask when COVID spread goes up, not just when hospitals are full. It also means the CDC is really worried about new variants.

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The other implication of the CDC switching masking guidelines back to COVID Community *Transmission* is that many places can't use the "we are following CDC guidelines" excuse anymore.

Under current CDC guidelines, mask mandates should be in place for 71% of counties in the US.

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SOURCES

CDC tweet recommending masks during high transmission: https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1608875618497867776

CDC Community Transmission Map: http://covidtransmissionmap.com

CDC Community Levels Guidelines and Map: https://cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html

If this turns out to be a mistake from the CDC's social team, it just shows how bad & confusing the CDC Community Levels map is. Regardless, CDC should revert mask guidelines back to transmission. People need to take precautions when cases rise, not when hospitals are already full.

#COVID #COVID19