The problem with that sort of advice is it is grossly oversimplified. If I'm hiking on a narrow path and someone walking along in the other direction; do I need to leave the path and put a mask on or can I just smile politely and walk on past? Do I need to wash my hands immediately after walking past them?
The CDC page provides very little guidance on why or when. There are directives and no way to assess the risk. Compare that to this high quality article - it talks about no. people sneezing on a small surface to get high viral loads, or the Korean story where there is a lot of situational data about how people catch the virus. Very situated, talking about actual values and mechanisms.
I don't need to know what to do, that is such generic nonsense I could have guessed it as soon as I knew covid was airborne - block your air intake, stay away from people. Truly not the stuff of enlightenment. I need to know risk so I can decide what situations to avoid and when to impolitely leave the room. I can use this scientist's article to assess whether I am personally at risk of catching COVID in a given instance. That is much more powerful than the CDCs article.
The last line of the CDC page is a link for people who want to learn more about protecting themselves, which at least provides some of the more precise information you want. Having a concise post of the key parts is more useful to many people.
The only useful information in the Medium article lacking from the CDC is the bit about filtering air meaning it's usually safer to be outside. Beyond that, it's more interesting but suggests the same as the CDC page.
It's a great cheatsheet for what you need to know, but it doesn't attempt to convince people why they should be wearing a mask.
It's a bunch of facts printed on a page. It doesn't build a narrative and it doesn't form an argument. Unlike the medium article, it didn't make me think about the situations in my own life where I could be doing a better job of protecting myself and others. The medium article spurs thought because it's so well-written!
People need to not only be told what to do to protect themselves and others, but there should be an element of explaining why, and explaining the logic behind the recommendations.
I wouldn't share the CDC guidelines with family. I would share the medium article. You can assign a percentage likelihood of sharing with family, and it's just a guess, but I bet the medium article has a higher likelihood of being shared with others by your average person.
Thanks for the link. This CDC guidance is basically the tl;dr of the actionable parts of the medium article. The CDC guidance is:
* Maintain good social distance (about 6 feet). This is very important in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
* Routinely clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces.
* Cover your mouth and nose with a mask when around others.
A small difference between the medium article and the CDC guidance is the order of importance, particularly as the weather gets colder in the US. The medium article argues #4 (masks) and #1 (distance) are more important than #2 (hand washing) and #3 (cleaning). The order on the CDC site is probably more of an artifact of how the guidance evolved rather than the relative importance (the wayback machine shows the mask bullet was added June 1st: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.cdc.gov/coronaviru...).
