For those who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Center’s announcement on Thursday, April 13, advises that wearing masks and maintaining social distance indoors or outdoors is no longer necessary — signifying a promising return to normal life.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the CDC, said at a White House news conference on Thursday. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.” This news comes a day after Republican lawmakers criticized the federal agency, accusing them of adhering to extensively conservative mask-wearing recommendations and undermining both scientific integrity and public trust. The agency stipulates that fully vaccinated people can go without masks “except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.” Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and the state of Washington quickly lifted their mask mandates following the recommendation of joining the swath of states who have recently removed mask mandates.
On one front, the latest mask guidance is an auspicious sign for a summer that Americans have longed to revel in and even an incentive for those who are reticent about the vaccine to receive it. The Biden administration has set an executive goal of inoculating 70% of Americans by midsummer and as of today, over 118 million people (approximately one-third of the population) have been fully vaccinated. On another front, many claim the recommendations — which present an honor code system — diverge from the road to herd immunity. Dissenting opinions point to how those who have an entrenched resistance to vaccination and masks (which has largely been a partisan stance) are likely to remove their masks without receiving a vaccine. Younger children who haven’t been authorized for the vaccine will potentially return to schools at large come fall and immunocompromised individuals in inaccessible areas are also at risk. The recent recommendation amplifies issues a nation beleaguered by a nearly two-year pandemic and a plateauing inoculation rate is facing. In an attempt to allay the concerns of the relaxed recommendation, Walensky told NBC’s Today show on Friday that “people may want to continue wearing masks, because we’ve been wearing masks for 15 months, and it’s going to be hard to let go of them.” Walensky added, “We should be able to do that in our own due time.”
