(STAT News) – People often ask: How much should guidance be based on evidence versus what the public is willing to do? But that’s the wrong way to think about it. Instead, those in charge of public health guidance should consider the burden it imposes on people to change their behavior, balanced against the health benefits the change can offer to them and those around them.

The CDC’s new guidance on what to do after a Covid infection has been controversial among some. It says that you should isolate when symptomatic but when the fever subsides and symptoms improve, you can end isolation. Using this lens of burdens and benefits, the new approach makes a lot of sense. (Read More)