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The country’s largest nurses’ union is blasting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over its latest recommended easing of mask restrictions – claiming the move "threatens the lives of patients, nurses and other front-line workers." "Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century," said registered nurse Bonnie Castillo, president of National Nurses United, which says it represents more than 170,000 members. (Sheehy, 5/16)

The largest union of registered nurses in California is asking state officials not to follow new guidance from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention on lifting mask mandates for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, union officials said Sunday. The California Nurses Association, an affiliate of the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, condemned the CDC’s guidance, calling it “a big blow to the safety and welfare of the nurses, front line workers, as well as the patients,” CNA president Zenei Triunfo-Cortez said in a phone interview Sunday. “We have to understand that the pandemic is not over,” said Triunfo-Cortez. “There continues to be high rates of infection and people continue to die, even nurses.” (Flores, 5/16)

Communities across the US ushered in a quick return to normalcy over the weekend as the country responded to the latest mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said Thursday fully vaccinated Americans don't need to wear masks or social distance indoors or outdoors, with some exceptions, triggering announcements nationwide from state leaders and businesses who lifted their mask requirements for people who've gotten their Covid-19 shots. But with a big part of the country still unvaccinated, some experts say the move came too fast and has resulted in many more Americans now shedding their masks than the CDC recommended. (Maxouris, 5/17)

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control advised that fully vaccinated people can be indoors and outdoors without wearing masks except when in health care settings, on public transportation, or in specified areas where masks are required. When CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter asked about the press' role in covering the return to normal, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said, "We can report what the news is, but then we have to explain the relevance of it." (Benveniste, 5/16)

Covid-19 cases are decreasing in the United States, and masks are no longer required everywhere, but the pandemic is not over — and won’t be until younger children can also be vaccinated, epidemiologists said in a new survey by The New York Times. The true end of the pandemic — when it becomes safer to return to most activities without precautions — will arrive once at least 70 percent of Americans of all ages are vaccinated, they said. Adolescents just began receiving vaccines this week, and those for children younger than 12 are not yet approved. (Miller, Quealy and Sanger-Katz, 5/15)