Timothy L. O'Brien, Columnist

Stop Complaining About the CDC’s New Mask Rules

As the delta variant surges, people overreact to public health advice.

July 29, 2021 at 12:30 PM UTC

Timothy L. O'Brien is senior executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion. A former editor and reporter for the New York Times, he is author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.”

The return of the Covid mask.
Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency charged with safeguarding public health, did just that on Tuesday. It recommended that vaccinated people in regions where the risk of Covid-19 infections has surged should wear masks indoors.

This was advice, not an order. It was guided by science and data, not by politics or personal whims. It represented an evolution in thinking, because Covid-19’s delta variant has sprinted across the country since May, when the CDC said vaccinated people could forego masks almost everywhere.