The CDC is Damned If It Does & Damned If It Doesn't

With COVID-19 cases surging, the CDC revised its mask policy and recommended that people start wearing masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. 

The decision comes two and a half months after the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks indoors. I remember that day well as the announcement came right before my second dose of the Moderna vaccine:

All of this to say there will be some confusion where it concerns the wearing of masks indoors and at large outdoor gatherings. Invariably I think this will lead to increase in the daily COVID-19 caseload which has been falling steadily. But it is possible that the number of vaccinations might be sufficient to offset any possible increase in cases if it results in fewer hospitalizations and deaths. However, the daily vaccination rates have been declining and states have been implementing incentive programs most notably Ohio's $1 million lottery drawing for residents who have been vaccinated. 

Unfortunately, the national vaccination rate has further plummeted and the lotteries haven't helped. At the same time, the Delta variant has spread primarily in jurisdictions that voted for Trump. Of course, political ideology isn't the only factor at play. Younger people are far less likely to be vaccinated than their older counterparts. But those who are enthusiastic Trump supporters take pride in not getting vaccinated and wear it as a badge of honor. Some Republican politicians and aspiring politicians have seen fit to urge their supporters to get vaccinated but the genie left that bottle long ago.

Given this level of resistance to the vaccine, one could argue that CDC ought to have waited for revising its mask guidelines. But the same problem would have occurred had the CDC loosened its guidelines in May, July, September or December with stagnating vaccination rates and a critical mass of the population unwilling to take them. 

And so long as there is a critical mass of the population that is unwilling to get vaccinated much less wear a mask, the CDC is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't whatever its recommendations on masks, vaccines or anything else where it concerns COVID-19. It isn't to say the CDC can't do better but the CDC can only do better if all Americans want to do better when it comes to COVID-19.