are asymptomatic. the cdc recommends that you can actually continue to wear a mask for another five days after those initial five days. the new guidance though is not without its criticism, we should note, with some arguing that a negative test should also be required before leaving isolation and returning back to society. but it is apparently aimed at mitigating the virus s impact on society, even as omicron tears through this country threatening to push us past last year s case record. now, you may remember that in january of last year we recorded over 300,000 cases in a single day as cases reached new heights hospitalizations did too and so did deaths. hospitals were overrun and staff out sick and needing to isolating, increasing the strain on our health care systems. now one year later we may actually top that record, believe it or not. the newly retired director of the national institutes of health, dr. francis collins,