WOOT! No more masks!!

[ZRX61]

CDC just came out & said it. If you're vaccinated no need to wear a mask at any time in any situation, inside or outside.

[Horse]

Almost right.

Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... nated.html

[ZRX61]

The online statement contradicts the press conference statement. I'm going by the gal said on camera... which included "you can now do what you were doing before the pandemic"

[ZRX61]

In a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people on Thursday, allowing them to stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings.

“Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said during a Rose Garden address heralding the new guidance, an event where he and his staff went without masks. Hours earlier in the Oval Office, where Biden was meeting with vaccinated Republican lawmakers, he led the group in removing their masks when the guidance was announced.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask,” he said, summarizing the new guidance and encouraging more Americans to roll up their sleeves. “Get vaccinated — or wear a mask until you do.”

The guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but it will help clear the way for reopening workplaces, schools and other venues — even removing the need for social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated.

“We have all longed for this moment — when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said at an earlier White House briefing.
The CDC and the Biden administration have faced pressure to ease restrictions on fully vaccinated people — those who are two weeks past their last required COVID-19 vaccine dose — in part to highlight the benefits of getting the shot. The country’s aggressive vaccination campaign has paid off: U.S. virus cases are at their lowest rate since September, deaths are at their lowest point since last April and the test positivity rate is at the lowest point since the pandemic began.

Walensky said the long-awaited change is thanks to the millions of people who have gotten vaccinated and is based on the latest science about how well those shots are working.

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” Walensky said. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

The new guidance is likely to open the door to confusion, since there is no surefire way for businesses or others to distinguish between those who are fully vaccinated and those who are not.

“Millions of Americans are doing the right thing and getting vaccinated, but essential workers are still forced to play mask police for shoppers who are unvaccinated and refuse to follow local COVID safety measures,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Are they now supposed to become the vaccination police?”

Walensky and Biden said people who are not fully vaccinated should continue to wear masks indoors.

“We’ve gotten this far — please protect yourself until you get to the finish line,” Biden said, noting that most Americans under 65 are not yet fully vaccinated. He said the government was not going to enforce the mask wearing guidance on those not yet fully vaccinated.

“We’re not going to go out and arrest people,” added Biden, who said he believes the American people want to take care of their neighbors. “If you haven’t been vaccinated, wear your mask for your own protection and the protection of the people who also have not been vaccinated yet.”

[Mr. Dazzle]

The cynic in me wonders how much of this is intended to make people get vaccinated....America having a huge percentage of anti vaxxers and general morons.

[Supermofo]

The odd thing about that is that masks are supposed to stop the wearer passing on their lurgy, not protect the wearer from other peoples lurgy. And whilst vaccinated people are less likely to get or pass on the virus they still can. So that advice seems odd until everyone or by the majority of people are vaccinated no?

[DefTrap]

The odd thing about that is that masks are supposed to stop the wearer passing on their lurgy, not protect the wearer from other peoples lurgy. And whilst vaccinated people are less likely to get or pass on the virus they still can. So that advice seems odd until everyone or by the majority of people are vaccinated no?

It seems that you can't persuade the unpersuadable (you're vaccinated but must keep wearing for the common weal) - so they've changed tack and are telling them they can stop wearing the mask if they take off the tinfoil hat and get vaccinated.

[ZRX61]

The cynic in me wonders how much of this is intended to make people get vaccinated....America having a huge percentage of anti vaxxers and general morons.

The guidelines regarding masks etc have always been politically driven in the US. Right now Biden needs to distract from soaring inflation, the clusterfuck at the border & the miserable jobs growth last month. Everyone with even minimal knowledge of vaccines know how they work, but they've been trying to convince us that this one is different... & after months of lying they're finally admitting that it works just like all the others.