This time, as the agency once again decided to weigh in on wearing masks in public, it was forthright on the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines, and may have hoped that the goal of not wearing masks in public would further incentivize people to get their shots. But the argument from public health professionals, as well as members of the public, has again been that people are too irresponsible or selfish to follow the guidelines, and unvaccinated people will abuse this system. To be sure, no one knows know what will happen next. Where mask mandates are dropped, some unvaccinated people will stop wearing masks in public. It’s also possible the new mask guidelines will indeed be the incentive some people need to get vaccinated. The bigger concern here is not with what the CDC actually said, but with the fact that there is a deep lack of trust in our society. People don’t feel like they can rely on one another to follow guidelines that aren’t enforced with mandates or penalties. And while there’s good reason for why that trust has evaporated, the CDC’s choice to release or withhold information to us all should not depend on whether some people might abuse that information. The public deserves to be told the truth about where the science stands; the public also deserves competent governors and public health department chiefs who can communicate nuance and decide what policies make sense to implement at a community level.