This took nearly two years too long. Very early in the swine flu pandemic, the Obama administration made the sensible decision that case-based surveillance and contact tracing were pointless for an infectious respiratory virus that would inevitably go through most of the population.
Trump and Biden failed to do the same thing with COVID, to disastrous consequences – futile efforts to trace the untraceable, with massive disruption to school and work.
The CDC yesterday finally, mercifully changes their guidance. They now recommend case investigation and contact tracing only in “high-risk congregate settings such as long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters.”