Last Thursday the CDC announced that masks were no longer needed indoors by fully vaccinated people. The claimed that the science supported the fact that being vaccinated is protective enough not to worry. Many states have since lifted mask mandates. Major retailers, including Trader Joes, Publix, Walmart and Costco, have also lifted their mask requirements, except where required by state and local ordinances. Unions whose members work with the public have issued statements urging continued mask wearing, including United Food and Commercial Workers International and National Nurses United. Doctors, epidemiologists and public health experts have also said that it’s just too soon to stop wearing masks, especially in areas where vaccination rates are low. The LA Times compiled some of their responses to this, and they’re urging caution.
A growing number of health experts vaccinated against COVID-19 said they’d keep their masks on in public settings as federal officials acknowledged that new relaxed mask recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needed clarification…
Experts are divided, but a number have said it’s better to be on the safe side for now.
“I strongly recommend to others that when at an indoor place where both vaccinated and unvaccinated people mix, such as grocery stores, that they wear a mask too,” tweeted Dr. Carlos del Rio, infectious diseases expert and executive associate dean at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Added Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, in a tweet: “Here’s my personal practice for now: Continue indoor masking in public places like grocery stores until more are vaccinated, infection numbers are down.”
“Add me to this list as well,” Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of UC San Francisco’s department of epidemiology and biostatistics, responded in a tweet. “Wearing my mask indoors just awhile longer until the rates [of vaccinated people] are higher.”
Leading scientists and doctors have generally agreed that vaccinated people should feel very safe that they have good protection against COVID-19.
But some have suggested waiting longer before allowing masks to be shed among vaccinated people in indoor public settings; they worry that unvaccinated people will defy the rules and go maskless as well, increasing the risk of transmission among unvaccinated people and potentially putting at greater risk children too young to be vaccinated or immune-compromised people.
In an interview last week, Bibbins-Domingo said the new guidelines also could pose a threat to people who want the vaccine but haven’t been able to get it for a variety of reasons.
Some experts welcomed the CDC’s guidelines and agreed it would provide an incentive for those who may have put off getting a COVID-19 shot.
CDC Director Dr. Walensky has defended her organization’s seemingly quick decision, stating that it’s science-drive, that the science evolves quickly, and that people can continue to wear masks if they want. Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration have backed the CDC up. You know my position on this. I agree with the experts quoted in the LA Times article. While it may be technically safe to remove our masks if we’re fully vaccinated, these recommendations do not take anti-maskers into account. Children under 12 still cannot get vaccinated and while children 12 to 16 can get the Pfizer shot many of them do not yet have access to it. This is way too soon. The science may be there, but the real world implications of normalizing ditching masks are too serious to ignore. Also, the people who don’t wear masks are the same one who don’t want to get vaccinated. Telling them they can go without masks if they get the shot is not going to increase the vaccination numbers. Many of us will continue to wear masks for the foreseeable future. I don’t care if people think it’s weird. I’ve seen how they dress.
photos credit: Norma Mortenson and August de Richelieu on Pexels, Mariah Solomon and Delfina Pan on Unsplash
I’m vaxxed and I’m wearing my mask inside and outside. Periodt.
Same
As a fully vaccinated person I will continue to wear my mask indoors and outdoors in crowded spaces. At least for now.
It felt like the cdc caved to public pressure. Here in St Louis last night I went to a grocery store that dropped mask requirements and about 75% were wearing masks. Besides COVID I like not getting the flu and colds. I will forever wear a mask on a plane, unless of course I win a lottery and buy my own plane.
It’s money. Period. They cannot get people to work low wage fast food jobs or stock the amazon warehouses so ITS TIME TO PUT AWAY MASKS.
I think the thing that disturbs me the most about all of this is realizing that government agencies in charge of our health and safety like the CDC and FDA who should be entirely independent of the politics of the present government and should be Science and evidence based ONLY are subject to the political winds and aims of the current presidential administration. I think this is going to be one of the lasting and most horrific legacies of the last administration. The politicization of agencies that have traditionally been independent (At least overtly).
Yes, I can’t believe the way the CDC let the teachers’ union dictate policy verbatim!
I live in rural southern Louisiana and no matter what the numbers or the mandates I would say that no more than 50% have ever been masked. I have picked up groceries orders and avoided as much in person shopping as possible for over a year now. It’s so sad, infuriating and discouraging.
I also like not getting the flu or a cold – my masks will be seasonal once Covid is truly under control.
I’m really quite angry with the CDC for doing this. Now businesses are following their recommendations and lifting mask mandates tiny, cramped establishments like Starbucks (which I only do drive-thru for, but I feel is now particularly unsafe indoors). And idiotic theme parks in Florida, Universal and Disney, have completely lifted their outdoor mask mandates, which is taking it a step further than what the CDC recommends, but was inspired by their announcement.
I was JUST feeling more comfortable going out a little bit more. But masks are to protect other people, not ourselves. If other people in stores I’m in aren’t protecting me, how the heck can I feel safe? I’m vaccinated and always masked up, but I seriously worry about how variants will spread now, which the CDC seemed to totally overlook in this decision.
@ Case, I too am angry with the CDC announcing that masks are not required for vaccinated people. We all know that those who aren’t vaccinated will not wear a mask, as we have seen even with mask mandates in effect, they still wouldn’t wear one. As a nation, we are at 37.7% fully vaccinated, but states like Texas are only 32% vaccinated, but we have an idiot governor that still drags his ankles on the ground. Then you take into account states like Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas that have rates in the 20% range of vaccinated, but those figures are only for at least ONE dose!!
This is a disaster on the part of the CDC and it will end badly. The state with the fastest vaccination rate is Ohio due to a 1M lottery. Other states are following with incentives as well.
We still have a mask mandate in Calif, it’s been extended for a month. They want to see how this all shakes out before following the CDC.
Smart! I’m sure CA will be criticized for this, but I think it’s great.
With how suddenly this CDC update came, I’m feeling grateful to be in CA, and having the mask requirement until mid-June. Fingers crossed that will give us enough time to push harder for more vaccines to be administered before people really get into the maskless summer free-for-all that I feel is coming…
I will still be wearing my mask at major stores and am thankful that my family and friend groups are all vaccinated so I feel safe with them. My county still has mask mandates and being in a liberal college town with numbers in the single digits has also been incredibly helpful to my anxiety. I even felt comfortable enough to sit inside(!) at a bar and have a drink last night because the place required proof of vaccination before allowing entry. It was so nice and I wish more eating/drinking establishments required that.
I’ve gone shopping a few times since the CDC announcement and the vast majority of people I’ve seen are wearing masks. So I plan to keep wearing my mask, probably for the rest of the summer. Our office is scheduled to open next month and I plan to wear my mask. We have an open office configuration, we got rid of cubicles years ago but I think there may be some changes once we all get back in there.
Texas, which lifted mask mandates in March, had zero COVID deaths for the first time yesterday. The numbers from Texas and Florida support lifting mask mandates. Anyone who wants to can still wear a mask and take comfort in the protection they feel from it. Those who don’t want to should not have to.
@TK, The measure should not be how many deaths due to to COVID – especially since we all know that can be decided any which way. The measure should be how many positive tests. If we set the bar that low (counting deaths) we really missed the mark.
Additionally, the low death rate can be attributed to any number of factors, for example: more hospital care available (which could be due to mask wearing because the spread is lessened) or those being vaccinated have less severe symptoms (which is true) thus they don’t end up being a headcount for the death rate.
Well, it was also reported yesterday that Texas had the lowest 7-day Covid positivity rate ever and the fewest Covid cases in over 13 months. Hard to say that lifting the mask mandate had a detrimental effect.
TK< I get the strong feeling no matter what I may say you will have a retort. To each their own. Bottom line is that the masks do help and so did all the other measures that were in place.
It has been reported many times that Florida and Texas were purposely underreporting their cases and deaths. Last month, Fox News released a report(the bots on twitter were actively reposting it) claiming that Texas and Florida had lower cases and deaths than states like MI and NY. What they failed to mention was the % positivity rate for Florida and Texas, which shows that the cases only appear to be lower because Florida and Texas just aren’t testing enough. Every month there are at least 2-3 stories about how Ron bullied people into reporting false numbers and hiding results, he even had Rebekah Jones arrested because she wouldn’t stop challenging him.
Rebekah Jones has been completely discredited. Hence, the arrest.
@why, the take away is that this subject will separate people into two camps. And each one will firmly dig in and a test to their side. I, for one, side with your camp.
This pandemic will be forever plagued (what an oxymoron) by it being politicized early on. Such a shame so many lives have been lost.
Florida and Texas have been lying about numbers the entire time.
And Jones was not discredited, she was used as an example for others not to speak out about the truth.
You spoke a lot of words when you could have just said you are a anti vax and anti masker 😉
Do you live in Texas? Our governor and his administration has been lying through his teeth. The whole Great Freeze fiasco should have clued you in at the lengths they go to blame everything but their own mismanagement.
covid deaths are down overall due to the vaccines.
And this why ~experts should stop discounting the importance of social sciences (economics excluded) in their decision making around things that involve society-at-large/human behavior. The CDC guidance/WH backing is premature at best, irresponsibly dangerous at worse.
I will continue to socially distance, sanitize and wear my mask. Until we fully understand this pathogen, I will err on the side of caution and I will be fully vaccinated by the end of the month.
Backed by science really means whatever Fox News and it’s hosts, Rand Paul, and Jim Jordan are ranting about. Even though Dr Redfield isn’t in charge of the CDC anymore, I still get the impression that he is indirectly controlling the decisions that are coming out of the CDC.
I wish that the press and WH would stop saying that cases are down, testing has been greatly reduced because the focus is on how many vaccinations can be achieved. The CDC and WH have completely stopped talking about variants as if they don’t even exist.
Until 75% and partially vaxxed and 20% fully vaxxed in my area I won’t be taking off my mask. Of course, as a public health nurse, I’m too traumatized to take it off ever. I’ll stop wearing a mask outside when I’ve had my 2nd shot, but indoors, I’m never taking it off again. Nope.
Why is the CDC acting like the virus has gone away? Human frailty at work.
There is still summer to deal with and then the winter holidays. I am fully vaxxed but I am still wearing the masks when out and about.
Good point about the summer and then winter. I would also add that spring will follow and then summer again.
Oh look TK is a covid denier right here in our comment section.
People are tired of the pandemic but we are still in the middle of a pandemic.
It’s still raging around the world in so many places, and still very much in the US and Canada/Mexico
History shows we are still very much in trouble. We are very lucky we have working vaccines and treatments but we are no where out of the woods yet because stupid people that can get vaccinated are not. (Obviously not meant for people that legitimately can not be vaccinated)
Stupid people do not understand that as long as it is replicating like it currently is, we are statistically likely to get worse varients/strains.
It’s how viruses work.
WE WILL NOT REACH HERD IMMUNITY IN THE U.S.
I am so sick of stupid selfish people
I’m vaxxed and am still wearing my mask inside. Got my hair cut and colored today and you know I was wearing my mask the whole time. I don’t trust unvaccinated people and since my kids are not vaccinated yet, I’m not risking anything with my family!!
Ugh. I work in retail and our mask mandate is lifting. I have so many immunocompromised co-workers who had just gotten comfortable with the “new normal” thanks to near-universal masking. Now here we go all over again, getting breathed on by anti-mask, anti-vax idiots who want to invade our bubbles.
It’s just really frustrating and confusing that the CDC made this blanket statement with absolutely no room for nuance. So even if you’re in a low-vax area, it’s apparently still fine to take off the masks, even indoors? So even if you have unvaccinated small children, it’s cool for you to just run around without a mask anywhere? Lol, will young children understand why they have to keep their masks on? Maybe they will. For an agency that is supposed to be issuing guidance for the entire country, this particular one-sentence guidance dangerously lacked the kind of details Americans want and need to make thoughtful decisions based on their own acceptable risk levels, and the kind of guidance that businesses need in order to keep people safe while “following the science.”
Oh, and also? If the government truly wants us to be able to ditch masks for the summer (I’m keeping mine for the fall), they need to be focusing on getting communities of color vaccinated. I’ve read recently that many Latinx people want the vaccine, but don’t have access to it. Gig workers? They can’t afford to not work, even to go get a vaccine shot or deal with the side effects. I know the J&J shot is less appealing to many, but I can’t say how shitty it is that the manufacturing plant so massively f-ed up.
A Covid denier on Facebook was making the argument that we need to FolLoW the SciEnCe like we’ve been telling everyone else to, and drop our masks. I made the quite eloquent analogy that if the vaccine was a condom (mostly effective but not 100%), then being vaccinated *and* wearing a mask was like adding spermacide. It’s just extra protection.
I work in primary care healthcare and was just in a meeting with some pcps and they were all lamenting how there is going to be another surge as everything is reopening fully and the un-vaccinated will claim they’re vaccinated.
Yep, we have the 4th wave moving across Europe heading the US way. We are not anywhere near vaccinated enough to remove the safety standards.
A lot more people will die and have long term/permanent effects than should have.
I absolutely predict it to surge again. And some states like Michigan (and others) are still out of control. But yay! They will be bringing that shit to California to go to Disneyland and spreading it like crazy because they won’t be wearing masks
Remember back in March when Walensky warned about the “impending doom” that was coming if states relaxed restrictions – didn’t happen.
I’m fully vaccinated and will most likely continue to mask because I have children too young to be vaccinated. I’m asking them to wear masks, and I need to model the correct behavior.
I have been shocked by the number of moms with 4+ young kids I’ve seen out in stores all unmasked, our area in Dallas isn’t that vaccinated. I think I know which mega church they go to, though, but I can’t imagine just….totally rolling the dice with my kids health that way.
Even before the cdc announcement, businesses have been defying the mask mandate. I dropped my car off at a garage in Laguna and no one was wearing masks in the office. Every so often I peep at boutique studios to debate if I should start working out again or not, and among the various Pilates, yoga, bootcamp, boxing, spinning studios, about 90% of them are maskless. Although the ones in LA are better at masks than Orange County. Classpass is starting to charge my account again, so I’ll start going, but I’ll be in a mask.
I’m fully vaxxed and while I’ve dropped wearing my mask outdoors (including some outdoor dining, which has been incredible after 14 months of being an actual hermit), I’ll continue to wear mine indoors in public for at least a few more months, maybe indefinitely. I feel really confident that outdoor transmission is not a worry, but we don’t know enough yet for me to feel comfortable being unmasked around strangers indoors.
I’ll probably wear a mask on planes, public transit, and at the grocery store during flu season for the rest of my life. They help with my awful seasonal allergies too!
I’m fully vaccinated and will continue to wear my mask. I was out in the world yesterday for a little while and I can only remember one person wearing a mask while pumping gas. Just not sure if this is because everyone else was maskless or that I just don’t notice them anymore because they’ve become normal to me. (tho seeing someone without a mask really should have stood out in that case but I was so tired, wasn’t really paying attention).
The only reason for this “now it’s safe” is $. That’s it. Keep wearing your mask if it makes you feel safer and who cares what the maskless think. 😷
“I’ve seen how they dress.”
Thank you for the solid laugh! I have an 11 year old, and I really appreciate that there are people in the world who care enough to wear a mask, even fully vaccinated, because it keeps him safer, and ALL of the unvaccinated safer. I am starting to think I will never go maskless in public, because I’ve never been less sick in my life. Not even a cold! Why are people so fidgety about this???
I am fully vaxxed and will continue to wear my mask inside and outside because my children are not yet vaxxed (although my 14-year-old got his first Pfizer shot on Sunday). I am fully amazed to see that 90% of the people in my crowded gym classes are maskless. I’m not even sure I want to drop the mask when COVID cases are down or gone – the thought of people releasing aerosolized viruses into the air, COVID-19 or otherwise, is disgusting. I will absolutely wear it on planes and other public transport moving forward. It is a change of life for me – a welcome one, since I also have an immune disorder.