Noone has ever thought the CDC was infallible; we traditionally ignore everything public health officials tell us to do, since it's mainly things like "never eat medium-rare hamburgers".

That is unfortunate that we switched to directly getting mask policies etc. from them, because it's not their job to consider tradeoffs and they aren't good at it.

I've never heard that narrative, except from people into anti-establishment attacks who are criticizing the narrative. It's a strawperson, IME.

is strawman so non inclusive and offensive in the US?

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever seen a strawwoman. Maybe as part of a straw couple as decoration at a harvest market or something