[zactato]

Science is a relatively slow process, it takes a long time to understand how diseases work. Virtually every other disease has been studied for years or decades before a properly understanding how it spreads, how it grows within the body, how it manifests, how it can be defeated. Influenza has existed for over a hundred years and we're still learning more about it.

The CDC needed to make decisions quickly at the beginning of the pandemic before anything about the disease was really understood. As they learned more information they changed those decisions. Did they do all of this perfectly? No. Did they fuck up at moments? Sure. Have aspects of their response been way too political? Yes. They're human and not perfect. They were working under insane conditions and made some mistakes.

At the same time that we were learning about the disease, it was also changing. The strains that are common now behave differently than the strains that existed two years ago. This also complicates the process.

You are criticizing the CDC for "flip-flopping" when they've simply responded to new information and a changing disease. Do you expect them to have known all they know now on Day 1 of the disease? Do you expect them to have said zero for several years until everything was 100% known? Whats your fucking point here?

[nomel]

The problem is that the CDC presented things as fact, without any communication of uncertainty, so their change in stance was perceived as a change is stance, rather than some smooth approach to an "understanding". This was made worse by the fact that health experts (or anyone) who voiced these uncertainties, concerns, or pointed out the flaws/needed changes were silenced and bullied on social media, even if time proved that they were right. The tribalism was/is insane.

The communication from the US government was terrible, especially compared to other countries who's health leaders don't assume their populace are idiots.

[dreaminvm]

My point is that they've received basically no criticism for many of their mistakes. Saying vaccines will prevent the spread of COVID-19 makes no sense if they've not proven so ever, why make a massive policy decision which likely contributed to further spread (many restrictions were lifted due to their announcement, only to be put back later). Or as another example, they continued to require masks for children even as many countries removed that requirement long ago with data showing that it was safe to do so. Or that they mistakenly counted non-Covid related deaths (72k deaths) in their mortality data.

I call out flip-flopping as it reduces what little confidence the public has in their policy decisions and further empowers the fringe in discussions of ineffective treatments. No one is saying they should know on Day 1 of anything. That's a nonsense expectation. I do however expect them to communicate better and to educate the public on the evolution of the disease rather than rushing to any decisions until the data is clear.