This week, New York and California lifted nearly all restrictions tied to the pandemic. Vaccinated people there, and in most US states, no longer have to wear masks in most places. New York City celebrated with fireworks near the Statue of Liberty. It was a potent symbol of a promise US president Joe Biden made this month: that “America is headed into a summer dramatically different from last year’s—a summer of freedom, a summer of joy, a summer of get-togethers, and celebrations.”
But for some people, that summer of freedom will still involve wearing masks, either because it makes them feel safer, or because they hope to make everyone around them feel more comfortable. Yet mask-wearing has been politicized during most of the pandemic in the US and some other countries, and the choice to keep masking is becoming equally politically fraught.
Do we still have to wear masks in the US?
In May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said fully vaccinated people could “resume activities without wearing a mask” except in specific circumstances like public transportation. (The CDC recommends that people who are not vaccinated wear masks, but in some states, the rules say masks aren’t required indoors regardless of vaccination status, and experts worry that the confusion will lead people to flout the rules.)
The change in guidance came as a surprise to many experts who felt it was too soon. The science isn’t yet clear on whether vaccinated people can transmit Covid-19, and not everyone can get vaccinated: The jabs aren’t approved for children under the age of 12 and some vulnerable people, like those on certain kinds of immunosuppressive therapies, might not get as much protection from the vaccine as everyone else.
This begs the question: Even if government guidance says that we can take our masks off in most places, should we still keep them on in some situations? “If people want to be extra careful, that’s fine,” says George Rutherford, director of the prevention and public health group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “There are certain people who have a lower chance of being protected by vaccination, and you have to worry about them, although what’s really going to protect them is to get everybody around them vaccinated.”
At a certain point, Rutherford believes the US will reach herd immunity and everyone—even the unvaccinated—will be able to take off their masks in most circumstances. “But we’re not there yet, except maybe in Vermont and parts of California. We can get rid of mask mandates for people who are vaccinated now, but in the future we’ll be able to get rid of them for everybody.”
Should we keep wearing masks after Covid?
One of the lessons of this pandemic is that when people wear masks, wash their hands a lot, and stay six feet apart, all sorts of respiratory viruses get stopped in their tracks. In 2020, the number of flu cases, hospitalizations, and deaths were far lower than they typically are.
While we can’t all stay home forever—and children need to go to school—Rutherford hopes that “a couple of lessons will be learned” from this experience, namely, that people should wear masks when they are sick, and that they should continue to wash their hands often.
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June 18, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Do Americans still have to wear masks? - Quartz
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