The last Pandemic?

Since the novel coronavirus first showed up in America in January 2020, the U.S. government has routinely impeded scientists, public health officials, and citizens from coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Early on, the surgeon general admonished Americans for buying masks. As late as last August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was downplaying broad-based testing among asymptomatic people. It wasn't until this April more than a year into the pandemic-that the agency finally acknowledged what had become clear only a few months in: COVID-19 is rarely spread by surface contact. It's primarily an airborne disease.