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Omicron has pushed U.S. cases to record levels of more than 800,000 per day.

Infection levels seem to have peaked in some of the places that were hit first, including Puerto Rico, Cleveland, Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C.

The U.S. surgeon general warned that Omicron has not yet peaked nationally.

The need for speed
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was long revered for its methodical and meticulous scientific approach. But the Omicron variant is forcing the C.D.C. to make some decisions at a breakneck pace, my colleague Apoorva Mandavilli reports.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director, has sometimes skipped much of the traditional scientific review process as she balances what we know about the virus with concerns about how the agency’s guidelines affect the economy and broader society.

She supported booster shots, for example, before her agency had a chance to review the data on whether they were needed. More recently, the agency bypassed much of its normal review process when it shortened the isolation period for infected Americans to five days, from 10.

Some C.D.C. officials see Walensky’s actions as deeply demoralizing.

“They’re uncomfortable with how fast things are moving because they like to be very careful,” Apoorva said. “They don’t like to have to make these rash decisions with very little evidence, and it’s upsetting to them.”

This tension is not new. It has existed at least since the beginning of the pandemic, when the Trump administration began interfering politically with the agency’s work. C.D.C. officials had hoped things would change under President Biden, but some still see decisions as being driven by political and economic factors. “One of them said to me, ‘I guess this is our new reality now, we’re just politicized,’” Apoorva said.

The Omicron variant has only exacerbated the situation.

“Dr. Walensky has made these decisions that are really fast, and probably appropriate, given that Omicron is so fast,” Apoorva said. “In a pandemic like this, it’s almost impossible to look at science in isolation. You have to consider other factors because the economy is really important. Kids being in school is really important. But it’s difficult to figure out what that path is — where you take these factors into account but you’re also respectful of the scientific process.”

Some C.D.C. officials argue that if decisions are made on factors other than pure science, they at least want that said out loud.

“I was talking to Matt Apuzzo, a Times reporter in Europe,” Apoorva added. “He was saying that in Europe, they’re very clear and direct about it. They just say, ‘We don’t have a lot of science, but we’ve got to make some decisions, and this is what’s happening.’ I don’t know if the C.D.C. is not doing that here because they don’t want to play into the hands of anti-vaccine groups, or what’s holding them back from being completely honest about all the things that go into their decision making. But I think what it’s doing is leaving people very confused about what exactly is motivating the changes.”

NYT