Clean air has value beyond COVID-19, the wildfire smoke shows us

This week, much of the eastern U.S. was inundated with wildfire smoke that traveled south from Canada. The smoke reminded us how important clean air is for our health. The same public health measures that help reduce COVID-19 risk can also reduce the impacts of wildfire smoke. High-quality masks filter out both the pollution in smoke and coronavirus particles at the individual level; ventilation improvements do this at the collective level.

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COVID source shout-out: Mandate Masks NY

Political leaders in New York State recently ended a policy requiring masks in healthcare settings. In response to the change, local advocacy organization Mandate Masks NY has compiled a list of hospitals and healthcare centers in New York that are still maintaining mask requirements independently of the state policy.

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Why the CDC changed its masking guidance, and which metrics to follow right now

This past Friday, the CDC announced a major shift to its guidance for determining COVID-19 safety measures based on county-level community metrics. The new guidance is intended to replace COVID-19 thresholds that the agency developed last summer, during the Delta wave; here, the CDC is promoting a shift from using cases and test positivity for local decision-making to using metrics tied directly to the healthcare system.

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