Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s decision to relax its mask guidance was \u201cpremature\u201d and \u201cwrong,\u201d \u2026<\/b>
\nFormer Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s decision to relax its mask guidance was \u201cpremature\u201d and \u201cwrong,\u201d citing a surge in cases driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. In a series of Saturday tweets, Dr. Adams compared the CDC\u2019s May 13 guidelines easing the use of facial coverings to his call early in the pandemic with White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci against facial coverings. \u201cLast year Tony Fauci and I famously, prematurely, & wrongly advised against masks. I felt it was the best call at the time, but now regret it. I\u2019m worried the CDC also made a similarly premature, misinterpreted, yet still harmful call on masking in the face of delta variant,\u201d Dr. Adams tweeted. Los Angeles County on Sunday implemented a mandate for residents, including those who have been vaccinated, to wear masks indoors to combat a spike in COVID-19 cases, even though the CDC guidelines say that fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks. Dr. Adams, who served in the Trump administration, said that the \u201csooner CDC says we were wrong, & hits the reset button, the better. Trust me \u2014 I know more than anyone.\u201d \u201cInstead of vax it OR mask it, the emerging data suggests CDC should be advising to vax it AND mask it in areas with Upwards arrow cases and positivity- until we see numbers going back down again,\u201d Dr. Adams tweeted. \u201cCDC was well intended, but the message was misinterpreted, premature, & wrong. Let\u2019s fix it.\u201d Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday that local governments have the flexibility under the CDC guidance to reimplement their own mask mandates. \u201cWhat the CDC did in its guidance, about close to two months ago now, is based on the science, saying that your risk of getting sick or transmitting the virus was low if you were fully vaccinated,\u201d he said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d \u201cThey gave communities and individuals the flexibility to make decisions about what to do about masks.\u201d Dr. Murthy also predicted that other counties would follow the Los Angeles example. \u201cIn areas where there are low numbers of vaccinated people or cases are rising, it\u2019s very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation matters, like the mask rules that you see coming out in LA, and I anticipate that will happen in other parts of the country, too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n