New CDC mask guidelines update where vaccinated Americans need masks
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 5 years ago • 45 commentsBy: Jorge L. Ortiz and John Bacon (USA TODAY)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fully vaccinated Americans can discard masks and the need for social distancing outdoors and in most indoors settings, the CDC said Thursday in a dramatic announcement after months of mostly cautious measures.
The new guidelines announced by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represent a major step toward a return to normalcy for a nation battered and at times divided by a pandemic that has lasted more than a year.
"Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,'' Walensky said. "If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.''
A person is considered fully vaccinated against the coronavirus two weeks after getting the second Pfizer or Moderna shot or the same amount of time after receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings such as buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters but could ease restrictions for reopening workplaces and schools. In addition, the agency will no longer recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks outdoors in crowds, possibly allowing for bigger capacities at sporting events.
Masks mandates got politicized under former President Donald Trump, who usually eschewed face coverings and mocked those who had them, and they became a source of discord in parts of the country.
The new recommendations from the CDC could also serve as an incentive for the tens of millions of eligible Americans who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get their shots. Though more than 46% of the U.S. population of 330 million has received at least one vaccine dose, polls have shown about 25% don't intend to get inoculated.
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. are at their lowest rate since September and deaths are at their lowest point since April 2020, averaging about 600 a day, but experts still worry that the emergence of variants could disrupt that momentum and create another surge, especially as the virus continues to rage in other parts of the world.
President Joe Biden's administration had been under pressure to loosen pandemic restrictions as more Americans got vaccinated and infections diminished across most of the country, and in a call with six state governors Tuesday he hinted that some changes were coming.
"We have all longed for this moment - when we can get back to some sense of normalcy," Walensky said at a White House briefing Thursday.
Dr. Jay Wolfson, a public health expert at the University of South Florida, said the shift comes after the CDC had lost a great "a great deal of credibility" in the public's perception throughout the pandemic, in part because the agency's guidance was often overly cautious. Often the agency's guidelines on behaviors such as hand-washing and mask wearing lagged behind the "pragmatic realities" of the pandemic, Wolfson said.
Wolfson was skeptical the shift would motivate many people who have not yet gotten vaccinated to do so. He said incentives - Ohio is offering five $1 million prizes - will be a more effective way to persuade people to get the shot.
The shift "recognizes that we've come a long way," in the battle against COVID-19 and it poses little immediate public health risk, Wolfson said, adding that even in a "worst case scenario" where COVID-19 variants were to spread rapidly in the U.S., testing would quickly alert the nation to a problem.
Contributing: Joel Shannon
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It's official....At long last!
Oh darn, the democritter socialist commies will need to devise another plan. But then there's probably another month to go up here ... hope lives on.
I wonder what happened between yesterday and today to cause such a decision?
Alas, these are the college educated, over-paid morons that we've been listening to. The so called "science."
They dotted all the 'i's and crossed all the 't's? Shame on them ... @!@ ... but then I'm an underpaid moron who's not hell bent on finding the slightest flaw.
But only for fully vaccinated people.
How are Florida people going to prove they're vaccinated?
A move to get to the hesitant vaxers?
Why else would people get vaccinated if they can't return to normalcy?
How are Florida people
Never mind the people of Florida, why is the idiot in the White House still wearing a mask outside? No wonder there are people who don't want to get vaccinated!
He's not, change the channel.
That would be my guess.
Interesting, I watched some CNN people talking about this. They were (surprisingly to me) happy about this new guidance, but questioning why you would even need to mask up on buses and airplanes, and so on. Nice to see them thinking for themselves, and I agree.
Why would I? Before Covid, I never did.
I know the nuance of comments can be confusing for some, so I’ll clarify. I never said people shouldn’t wear masks on buses and airplanes. I said I supported the fact that news commentators (one of them being a doctor) were willing to ask why the guidance was still recommending it.
But you talk a bit like an infectious disease expert, so maybe you can explain it.
A non sequitur in triplicate. How unsurprising.
Thank you Kizzmekia Corbett and others.
Common sense is now science. Good.
Hospitals? I mean, I guess the Emergency Room could be crowded, but other than that, I don’t think of hospitals as generally being crowded.
Morning. I don't wear a mask to protect myself Tacos...I wear a mask to protect you!! I don't want to be responsible for passing on this bloody virus to you and your family and wiping them out after visiting a hospital or after using public transport.
Hospitals are full of very ill people. Kids in isolation for months battling cancers and people sook about two weeks quarantine..elderly folk, people out of surgery and ones already battling the virus..it one takes one person swaning thru the hospital visiting someone. Chuck up a cough and sneeze with the virus not realising they have got it yet. Contaminate the patient and anyone else into the air con and bingo..
So wearing a face mask here is what it is all about, consideration for others. I go to cancer treatment down Melbourne. We are virtually virus free. I come home I still isolate as you just never know and it doesn't bother me. Have been doing it for near on one and a half years.. and wear a face mask..
And when I am vaccinated I will still wear a mask in a hospital regardless..and out in public if things change to protect my fellow Aussies...a simple thing, that could save a life..
That’s cool. I’m fully vaccinated, so I’m not sure I need to be overly concerned about it. But to be clear, before Covid, you didn’t do that, right?
Morning.. no we didn't wear face masks but the vast majority of people with Asian back ground did..no one batts an eye..
The vaccine is not 100% percent effective but better than nothing. So I am certainly not relying on it and if I feel comfortable wearing a mask I will be.
Feels odd without it to be honest. Amazing how quick you adapt to it. The Australian population was asked to do it and we did. Yes as always had the feral element that refused and they copped a fine for their efforts..and were ostracized in their communities for it.
Some were verbally attacked, one had her shop burnt down in the city and some moved. Yes they got their 15 minutes of fame and thought it funny flaunting the rules and putting it on Facebook. Or better still they were arrested. I would have tasered them when they resisted..lucky I am not a cop.
And most of them over 50 Year olds and stupid women.. pity they did not think of their families first..and when it all went pear shaped bawling their eyes out on TV. It was hilarious and made total fools of themselves to the embarrassment of their families.