Vaccinated people should resume wearing masks indoors in public places with high levels of coronavirus transmission, Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommended Tuesday. The CDC said the guidance applies in areas with “high” and “substantial” Covid-19 spread, based on the agency’s county-level data tracker. More than 63 per cent of counties in the US are currently experiencing “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 spread, including the majority of counties in the Southeast and many counties in Western states.
The recommendation for students and teachers to wear masks in all K-12 schools will resume, regardless of vaccination status, Walensky said. The updated recommendations were issued after new data showed the Delta variant can spread even among vaccinated people. However, the CDC chief reiterated that vaccines have been shown to substantially reduce the risk of hospitalization with Covid-19.
The CDC had said in May that fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks indoors — advice that was aimed at encouraging vaccination — but some experts warned the move was a gamble as it could encourage the unvaccinated to shed their masks as well. Acknowledging fatigue with the pandemic and shifting guidance, Walensky concluded her remarks by saying that “[t]his is not a decision that was taken lightly.”
The CDC’s U-turn led some commentators to make false and misleading claims about the spread of Covid-19 and its prevention. Robby Starbuck, a congressional candidate in Tennessee, falsely suggested that the data influencing the CDC’s decision showed vaccinated people carry more of the virus than the unvaccinated; in fact, the data suggests only that infected vaccinated people carry more virus than previously understood. In the follow-up to his tweet, shared at least 1,100 times, Starbuck invited readers to contribute to his congressional campaign, highlighting the political and financial incentive for spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
Meanwhile, conservative activist CJ Pearson tweeted, “They told us the masks would work. They lied. They told us the vaccines would work. They lied. Their lies cost lives.” The remark failed to take into account data that continues to show that vaccinated people remain better protected against Covid-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.
Other responses aimed to advance conspiracy theories, including Newsmax personality Emerald Robinson’s tweet linking the guidance to the unfounded Great Reset claim, a pervasive anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine narrative. — First Draft Staff
