The CDC changed its COVID risk formula. The results are stunning

Virtually overnight, the CDC flipped the script on the pandemic.

Hundreds of counties that were high risk are now low or moderate risk—even though COVID cases and mortality remain high. I explain here how they did it.https://t.co/WCj4An0ukb — Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) March 3, 2022

FEE’s Jon Miltimore writes, “Most media headlines focused on the CDC’s relaxed mask guidelines, which advised that most Americans could ditch masks. How the CDC arrived at this conclusion has received little scrutiny, however.

As many people likely noticed, the CDC changed its mask guidance even though COVID cases and COVID mortality remain high. As of March 1, daily new cases stood at roughly 60,000 based on its 7-day rolling average, which is significantly higher than last summer and virtually identical to one year ago. Meanwhile, about 1,600 Americans continue to die each day of COVID-19, according to government data, a figure that is, again, exponentially higher than last summer and similar to a year earlier…

Just days before, however, CDC data showed the vast majority of US counties were suffering from high transmission (see below). Then, virtually overnight, most of the US suddenly was in the low or medium category.

Massetti explains the CDC simply changed the formula it used to measure community transmission, or 'updated metrics in this framework,” as she says.”

Read the entire column.