|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Over the course of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, masks were a political symbol as much as a precaution against catching or spreading the coronavirus. For instance, some die-hard conservatives framed the face coverings as evidence of people's lack of critical thinking and willful ignorance to follow American politicians' directions, while liberals promoted masks as part of all-for-one effort to try to end the pandemic. So, in mid-May 2021, when the country's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC), announced new recommendations for when certain people can forgo masks, questions over federal leaders' new mask stance dominated social media. Numerous posts interpreted the development as the CDC's blessing for fully vaccinated people to go anywhere — indoors or outdoors — without covering their noses or mouths, under U.S. President Joe Biden. Without more context, however, that interpretation of the health agency's guidelines is misleading. Below, we explain the specifics of the CDC's mask recommendations for fully vaccinated people — which the agency released on May 13 and includes several exceptions — as well as what they mean for people on a community-to-community basis. Firstly, epidemiologists consider people fully vaccinated two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or two weeks after their single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot. In other words, if someone received their first vaccine in early April and their second shot on April 29, doctors would consider them fully inoculated on May 13. That said, it was true the CDC announced for the first time in months that a group of people — fully vaccinated Americans — were protected from catching COVID-19 without wearing masks in certain scenarios. Before that, the public health agency encouraged everyone to wear facial coverings indoors (except at home) and outside in large crowds to avoid spreading the coronavirus, regardless of their vaccination status. On May, 13, the CDC said in a statement: In other words, it was dangerously misleading to frame the new guidance as the public health agency's sudden decision that masks were not needed in any situation, or that they were no longer effective at curbing the spread of COVID-19. Rather, the CDC website included the following exceptions to the looser mask guidelines: Moreover, as NPR reported, all unvaccinated people, especially children and people who expect to be among others who are at risk (such as seniors or immunocompromised people), need to continue wearing masks: Also, let this be clear: The CDC's guidelines do not override local and state mandates on masks. Half of states had mask requirements in place for most indoor spaces on May 13, and just a portion of them loosened those restrictions as a result of the CDC's announcement, according to the AP. That news outlet reported: In sum, despite the revised guidelines, before fully-vaccinated people consider going somewhere without a mask, they should check the website or social media accounts of the businesses or venues to which they're heading, as stated in the CDC's guidelines. Additionally, they should consider resources from their city, county, and state public health departments, since they are designed to consider COVID-19 transmission rates at a granular, local level. For those reasons, we rate this claim a Mixture of true and false information. Yes, the CDC said fully vaccinated people can resume activities without covering their faces in certain situations -- so long as they aren't living in a region where a local government says differently, or they aren't working for or visiting the above-listed places.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}