"Science" is not a single group of people, and there were plenty of disagreements about the initial mask guidance. During the major PPE shortage, healthcare wor

"Science" is not a single group of people, and there were plenty of disagreements about the initial mask guidance. During the major PPE shortage, healthcare workers would certainly agree that masks were important - they needed them really badly! The CDC gives guidance to try to help the health of the country, not you personally. This resulted in bad guidance being issued. This has hurt their reputation quite a bit. It wasn't like "Science said masks don't work" though. Finally, as we have seen clearly during this pandemic, the CDC is highly political. They hire scientists, but overall it seems like everything must be approved by the politically appointed leaders at the top of the org. A good example of this are the hastily retracted reports, where statements telling people it is risky to eat in restaurants were cut from the updated version.