Question: I heard CDC came out with new masking guidelines. What do you think?
Answer: Yesterday, CDC released updated recommendations for fully vaccinated people (i.e. those who are 2+ weeks post 2nd dose for Pfizer/Moderna; 2+ weeks post single dose for J&J). I think CDC did a nice job describing the rationale for the update and developing a helpful visualization, Choosing Safer Activities (Figure 1). CDC’s updated recommendations build from three main points:
- Authorized vaccinations are proven to be protective against COVID;
- A growing body of evidence indicates that fully vaccinated people are less likely to become asymptomatically infected and transmit the virus to others; and
- We are still learning how long vaccine protection lasts and how much vaccines protect against emerging variants.
Taken together, these points indicate that vaccinated people can re-engage in many social activities, but some prevention measures will continue to be necessary (Figure 1). Additionally, CDC provides a compelling explanation for the updates, and the full document (~6 pages) provides far more detail and nuance, so check it out!
Until more is known and vaccination coverage increases, some prevention measures will continue to be necessary in some settings for all people, regardless of vaccination status. However, the benefits of reducing social isolation and relaxing some measures such as quarantine requirements may outweigh the residual risk of fully vaccinated people becoming ill with COVID-19 or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others. Additionally, taking steps towards relaxing certain measures for vaccinated persons may help improve COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake. Therefore, there are several activities that fully vaccinated people can resume now, at low risk to themselves, while being mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the virus to others.
Figure 1. Choosing Safer Activities (from CDC)
