The saddest part was the head of the CDC’s insistence that what was recommended was sufficient - it defied basic common sense!
I feel bad for Frieden.
His job isn't to implement common sense, because common sense is wrong often enough to require data and analysis for proper decision-making.
What he did wrong was to take a strong position out ahead of the data, which turned out to be wrong, and then he decided to double-down following the standard Bureaucrat Self-Protection Manual.
OK, OK, I don't feel THAT bad for him.
But when the story is written, I would love to know who it was that brought the heat on him to do what he did.