If "science" demanded 6 feet of separation to limit transmission, then that guidance should apply until the virus is eradicated.
This was never about science, it was about a social and political risk assessment made by government entities and imposed upon us.
I accept that a risk assessment can change with time, but I will forever resent the notion that restrictions were imposed based on "science." Science and risk assessments are very different things, with different inputs and different implications.
If it was so dangerous and 6 feet was needed or else...then way did they allow nearly full flights? Sure, at some point many airlines left middle seats open on 3x3 aircraft, but even then you probably had 8 people in the magic 6 ft bubble.
You cannot impose the situation of August 2022 (which, I’ll grant this, this current situation we actually reached months ago if not up to a year after Delta fizzled out) and make it retroactive to December 2019 and apply the logic of “oh, look, this means the situation never was dangerous or of concern.” And that is exactly what some people are doing. Just see what I responded to above. “See, this shows this virus never existed.” Some people are actually going that far. All of our family and friends that we know that got deathly sick and (and some sadly are no longer with us) - that didn’t actually happen because of this new guidance issued this week. The people we know working in medical facilities, health departments, etc. who were exhausted and completely overwhelmed and demoralized from not only the workload but the increase in suffering and death they had to experience during the course of the alpha through delta variants - none of that actually happened in that period of time because of this guidance issued by the CDC this week. This the logic these people operate under.
The virus being new to our bodies and immune systems is indeed an “eradicated” issue - as the article states, virtually everyone has either had an infection, vaccine, or both - this is no longer a type of virus that will be unfamiliar to the body or immune system. As well as the fact the virus has mutated into much more contagious - but also far less deadly - forms, which nearly everyone in the country having been exposed to it at least once if not multiple times even if they didn’t even realize it - it is that ubiquitous at this point. The “risk assessment” has changed over time, yes, but the entire situation changed as well.