The CDC's updated outdoor mask guidance: Yahoo News Explains
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans regarding mask-wearing. Yahoo News Medical Contributor Dr. Kavita Patel explains the situations when it's safe and less safe for people to take their masks off.
Video Transcript
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY: If you are fully vaccinated, and things are much safer for you than those who are not yet fully vaccinated. This guidance will help you, your family, and your neighbors make decisions based on the latest science and allow you to safely get back to things you love to do.
DR. KAVITA PATEL: The risk of COVID-19 transmission outdoors is incredibly rare. There have been some limited cases, which have been traced to people actually being close to each other and speaking at loud voices and not wearing masks or being extremely symptomatic. But if you are vaccinated and you are outside even without a mask with other people also who are vaccinated or you might be in mixed company, you don't know the vaccine status, it has been incredibly rare to see cases of COVID-19 that you can trace back to an outdoor contact.
So fully vaccinated people can be outdoors without a mask virtually in all settings, except for crowded ones like stadiums or concerts or rallies, such as that. So outdoors, if you're fully vaccinated, no masks, including outdoor dining. So it offers an incredible amount of flexibility.
Unvaccinated people should still be wearing a mask if they attend a small gathering outdoors, even with other members of different households. If there are other unvaccinated people. Unvaccinated people can also safely not wear a mask, but only if they are engaged in what I would call isolated, recreational outdoor activities.
Things like walking or jogging only with your household or by yourself. And unfortunately, if you are unvaccinated, you are still at a risk if you dine outdoors. So they recommend that if you are unvaccinated, you should still keep a mask on. So that is really the bright line where being vaccinated versus unvaccinated makes a difference.
So right now, we would still recommend small gatherings indoors without a mask if you're fully vaccinated. And again that's probably three to four households, depending on the size of a household. An average household, anywhere from two to four people. So if you're getting more than 12 to 15 people together, that is starting to get a little bit large. Is it unsafe? Probably not, if people are fully vaccinated.
But what we're trying to do is discourage very large groups where there's a higher probability of somebody who actually is not vaccinated being in that group and then being at very high risk. While guidance has been issued where adults outdoors can safely take off their masks, the CDC has also been very clear that children under the age of 16 who are not vaccinated do need to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing, and engage in all those handwashing and other behaviors that we have been encouraging.
Children will have requirements, certainly, especially in school settings where they're mixing with children in other households. I would expect those masks should stay on and be the same. But in terms of being outdoors with your family and walking or engaging in outdoor activities, there's no need for a child to wear a mask if they are only in your household.
If you're in your own household and you're outdoors, your child does not need to wear a mask. But if you are outdoors around other households or your child is in a school or camp type of setting, masks would be expected and [INAUDIBLE] vaccines. And that's because they're around other children from different households.
We already have some cases proven of child to adult transmission. It was exceedingly rare in the beginning of the pandemic. We're seeing more cases of it, we think possibly because more adults are getting vaccinated and the variants are more infectious. So more kids are getting infected. We will need to see less than 10 new cases per 100,000 people in order to feel much more comfortable about rolling back or even thinking about rolling back some of these restrictions.
So I would say it's probably several metrics, including less than 10 cases per 100,000, a vaccination rate of at least 60% to 70% in that community. And then also some understanding of what effect, if any, of the variant [INAUDIBLE] are having. If all of the new cases are from some very concerning variants, I would imagine local public health officials will err on the side of caution and still require masks indoors.
I think the final factor might be proof of vaccinations. You can have 70% of your city be vaccinated. But if you want to go indoors where there are other people, there might be a requirement to demonstrate evidence of vaccination and I think that could be coming in many places.
