mask...off?
The most important news in healthcare: Friday, May 14th
Yesterday, the CDC announced that fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear masks indoors. If you’re wondering why this announcement has come now, and what it actually means for you, you’ve come to the right place.
Today’s Pulse is 600 words, or a 5 minute read.
If you like what you read, make sure to drag the email to your “primary” tab!
Health PolicyCDC Updates Guidelines: Fully Vaccinated People No Longer Need to Wear Masks or Socially Distance
The pulse:
Yesterday, the CDC said that if you are fully vaccinated, it is safe to resume most indoor activities without a mask or social distancing measures. The agency also added that fully vaccinated people no longer need to get tested for COVID-19 even after a known exposure.
How did the CDC come to this decision?
In short, the US has been able to significantly stem the pandemic as more and more Americans have gotten vaccinated. Nearly 50% of the US adult population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. And just this week, the FDA authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12-15, the first vaccine available to the nearly 17 million people in this age group seen as crucial to contributing to herd immunity. As more Americans get vaccinated, COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to dramatically decline. The most recent seven-day average for new cases fell about 23% over the previous week.
In making the announcement, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky cited three recent studies that demonstrated the efficacy of vaccines against symptomatic COVID-19 infection and transmission.
What did these studies show?
One study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on May 6th, followed more than 6,7000 vaccinated healthcare workers in Israel who had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study showed the vaccine was 97% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection and 86% effective at protecting against asymptomatic infection. Two other US-based studies showed similar efficacy results for both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in vaccinated US essential workers and adults 65 and older.
Are there any other reasons to lift mask mandates?
Last week, President Biden announced his goal of getting at least 70% of U.S. adults to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by July 4. The CDC is likely hoping this latest announcement will encourage people who have so far declined vaccination to sign up in an effort to return to a quasi-normal life. Dr. Walensky remarked “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky Source: CNN
So I can throw out my mask?
Not just yet. The CDC guidelines are recommendations, not laws. Twenty-five states still have indoor public mask mandates and individual businesses across many states require individuals to wear masks while indoors. Of course, this may soon change. Spokespeople for CVS, Walgreens, and Macy’s have already announced that these businesses are reviewing their face mask requirements in light of the new CDC guidance.
What are the arguments against lifting mask mandates?
Some are apprehensive about throwing masks to the wind, particularly in the face of new global variants and news of so called “breakthrough infections” — cases where fully vaccinated people were diagnosed with COVID-19. Such breakthrough infections are rare and usually asymptomatic. However, they have been getting more attention this week after the Yankees announced that eight members of their organization had tested positive for COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Bottom line it for me:
Yesterday, the CDC took a massive step to incentivize vaccination efforts by easing masking and social distance guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals. This is a major signal from the CDC that the US is moving in the right direction towards a post pandemic future.