Also this morning the COVID pandemic appears to be entering a new phase with the CDC's announcement

of sweeping updates to its guidelines.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released yet another update

about how we should or shouldn't protect ourselves from COVID-19.

Gone were quarantines for people who'd been exposed to the virus, social distancing requirements,

and surveillance testing.

Vaccines were still heavily emphasized, and the agency pointed out that we have a lot

more tools to fight COVID now than we used to.

But the new guidelines mark a tonal shift.

I asked Tim Recwarth, who writes about COVID for sleep, to break him down for me.

The basic gist of them is it's no longer, hey, you know, keep your distance, try to do this,

do this, etc.

It's okay, you know, the people who need to figure out how to protect yourselves.

Just go on with your life.

It's part of a change from a more collective approach to weathering the pandemic to an individual

one.

Breathe or beware.

But what I couldn't tell and what I wanted to ask Tim was whether the CDC was meeting

a lot of exhausted Americans where they are or just throwing up a chance.

There's this joke that I saw circulating on Twitter from the comedian Ashley Nicole

Black and I actually wanted to read it to you, which is a terrible thing to do to a joke,

but I'm going to do it anyway.

...