The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) announcement Thursday that vaccinated people can go without masks in most settings is likely to accelerate a …
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) announcement Thursday that vaccinated people can go without masks in most settings is likely to accelerate a return to normalcy in the U.S. But the new guidelines caught most Americans off guard, and prompted questions and some notes of caution before returning to pre-pandemic habits. Here are five takeaways from the announcement: COVID-19 crisis phase shows signs of ending Masks, at least in many areas of the U.S., were a constant sign of the pandemic’s presence, from walking down the street to going to the grocery store. “Masks have been one of the most visible reminders of the threat of the pandemic,” said Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Now, with the CDC’s guidance that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most indoor and outdoor settings, “It can be, I’m sure, shocking at first for many people, but it’s also a reminder that, yes, we will come out on the other side of this,” Michaud said. Experts generally expect the virus will not be totally eliminated anytime soon, in part because some people can’t or won’t get vaccinated. Instead, it could fade into the background as a manageable risk, not something that dominates daily life. Some experts applauded the CDC’s announcement, while others said they thought it came a bit too soon, given that case rates will be lower in a few weeks as more people get shots. «At some point we are going to have to move past coronavirus and start living normally again,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CNBC, noting how effective the vaccines are. On the other hand, Bob Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, said the guidance could have been somewhat more measured. “I would not have thought they would take away the indoor mask requirement quite this soon and not have it somehow linked to the prevalence [of the virus] in your community,” he said. Decisions shift to businesses The country will not be immediately free from all mask requirements, though, even for vaccinated people.
