Science is a relatively slow process, it takes a long time to understand how diseases work. Virtually every other disease has been studied for years or decades before a properly understanding how it spreads, how it grows within the body, how it manifests, how it can be defeated. Influenza has existed for over a hundred years and we're still learning more about it.

The CDC needed to make decisions quickly at the beginning of the pandemic before anything about the disease was really understood. As they learned more information they changed those decisions. Did they do all of this perfectly? No. Did they fuck up at moments? Sure. Have aspects of their response been way too political? Yes. They're human and not perfect. They were working under insane conditions and made some mistakes.

At the same time that we were learning about the disease, it was also changing. The strains that are common now behave differently than the strains that existed two years ago. This also complicates the process.

You are criticizing the CDC for "flip-flopping" when they've simply responded to new information and a changing disease. Do you expect them to have known all they know now on Day 1 of the disease? Do you expect them to have said zero for several years until everything was 100% known? Whats your fucking point here?