Misrepresenting science to produce a preferred policy outcome is a terrible way to build trust during a pandemic.
Adding to that sense of suspicion is the fact that the CDC (among others, like Tony Fauci) actively discouraged masks, supposedly out of worry that scared consumers would hoard the supply needed by doctors and nurses.
The Biden regime was supposed to bring more scientific rigor, yet CDC's Rochelle Walensky has repeatedly massaged research findings to fit her policy desires for Americans to be swathed in real and metaphorical prophylactics.
The CDC dropped its guidance for outdoor masking only in April 2021, and even then only among vaccinated people, who can still get sick and spread the virus to others.
As America braced for the scary-sounding omicron "wave" before Christmas, the blue-state mandates started to emerge: vaccine passports for Philadelphia, booster-shot requirements at several elite universities, a renewed indoor mask mandate in California. "The imperative is to get through this winter surge," Newsom said. "And to do so in a way where we come out the other side and we have a chance to reevaluate."
Schools in heavily DEMOCRAT districts—Cleveland, Ohio; Newark, New Jersey; West Chicago, Illinois; Prince George's County, Maryland—preemptively responded to the the teachers unions once again shifting to remote-only learning. At one Brooklyn elementary school, unionized teachers staged a post-break sickout that precipitated a last-minute closure. "We are demanding," they wrote, "the city and our union take actions to stop the spread."
So just a few more weeks to "stop the spread?
Or months. Or years.