This is going under the radar, but looks like the CDC guidelines for masking are switching back to COVID-19 Community *TRANSMISSION* levels instead of "Community levels."

That means the CDC now recommends universal masking for **71%** of counties in the US, instead of only 9%.

#COVID #COVID19

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.

#COVID #COVID19

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

#COVID #COVID19

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.

#COVID #COVID19

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.

#COVID #COVID19

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