The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is weighing a new benchmark for whether masks are still needed in the United States, and could change its guidance as soon as next week.

Until now, the CDC has been recommending masks in areas with “high” levels of infection (50 infection per 100,000 people) – a metric nearly every county in the US meets. The CDC is now considering changing the benchmark to the number of severe illnesses and hospitalizations in a given area.

The timing makes sense: cases of the omicron falling have been dropping rapidly in recent weeks and President Biden and his Democratic colleagues are coming under increasing pressure from Americans to lighten up the restrictions.

Virtually every recent poll has found that Biden and Democrats are in for a shellacking in the midterm elections later this year, and the White House is now eager to change course on numerous issues, including COVID-19.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)