CDC Updates Guidance, Recommends Vaccinated People Wear Masks Indoors in Certain Areas
To prevent further spread of the Delta variant, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance on Tuesday to recommend that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors when in areas with “substantial” and “high” transmission of Covid-19, which includes nearly two-thirds of all US counties.
The updated CDC guidance makes “excellent sense,” David Weber, MD, professor of medicine in infectious diseases, told CNN.
“Breakthrough disease clearly occurs, and for those cases, we know they’re much more mild in vaccinated people, but we don’t know how infectious vaccinated people are,” he said. “But clearly, if you want to protect your children under 12 or grandchildren, or protect immunocompromised people, as well as protect your own health — from even mild disease — then you should be wearing a mask, particularly in areas of high transmission when indoors.”
CDC Reverses Course On Indoor Masks in Some Parts of US
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course Tuesday on some masking guidelines, recommending that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging. Under the CDC’s new guidance, that would include 80 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. In the Triangle, only Durham, Orange, Granville, Vance, Warren and Nash counties would be exempt from the recommendation.
“Wearing masks, even if vaccinated, in areas that have substantial community transmission makes perfect sense,” said David Weber, MD, in a similar report by the Associated Press, published on WRAL.com.