Life Kit - Understanding The Latest CDC Mask Guidance

Episode Date: May 22, 2021

The CDC says vaccinated folks don't need masks in most settings. NPR's Short Wave team breaks down that guidance and the pushback.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, LifeKit listeners. It's Alison Aubrey here. The CDC recently relaxed its guidance about when to wear masks, as I'm sure many of you are aware. It's kind of strange to see so many bare faces again. It raises questions about what this means for businesses, essential workers, and the most vulnerable populations. I was on a recent episode of Shortwave to talk all of this through. Here's the episode. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Maddie Safai here with Shortwave regular health correspondent Allison Aubrey. Hi, Allison. Hey, Maddie. Good to be here. So last week, the CDC updated its mask guidance for fully vaccinated people. That's right. The CDC has said that fully vaccinated people can stop wearing a mask in almost all settings, including indoors.

But there are exceptions, such as when you travel on a bus or a plane or other forms of public transit. And they say you should still follow whatever your state and local rules are. Right, right. And I don't know about you, Allison, but this guidance did feel somewhat sudden. It does feel a bit abrupt. You know, wearing a mask is a habit now. When I grab my keys, my cell phone, I grab that mask too. So yeah, it's a change. Yeah. I mean, for fully vaccinated, it feels like a big change, like a whole new world out there. But there are still a ton of people in the U.S. who aren't vaccinated, people that can't get vaccinated. They're still

making their minds up or those that want to but haven't been able to yet. Right. About 123 million people in the U.S. are now fully vaccinated. That is 37 percent of the total population. So still a long way to go. This new mask guidance from the CDC has brought up some concerns and criticism. So today on the show, the CDC's new mask guidance for the fully vaccinated and the questions it raises for businesses, essential workers and the most vulnerable. This is Shortwave, the new mask guidance from the CDC came out, different groups, industries have responded. Let's start with businesses. Sure. I mean, many of the big retailers are dropping their masking requirements, including Walmart, Costco, Starbucks. Walmart says it supports employees who may choose to continue to wear masks even if they're fully vaccinated.

And all of these chains are encouraging people who are not vaccinated to continue to mask. Now, over the weekend, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky was pressed about the new policy, and she cautioned that masks will be with us for a while. Like we said, a lot of people are not vaccinated and they should be masking in many settings. Here she is on NBC. This was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. This was really science-driven individual assessment of your risk. And now we all need to work together, and CDC is hard at work now, saying what does this mean for schools, for travel, for camps, for businesses? I think what she's getting at work now, saying, what does this mean for schools, for travel, for camps, for businesses?

I think what she's getting at here, Maddie, is that there is more guidance to come. Now that they've shifted this strategy on masking, a lot of the other guidance for what to do in the office, what to do in schools will need to get looked at again and reviewed. Now, given how hard it is to police the new policy, I mean, it's hard to know who is or isn't vaccinated. This really just comes down to the honor system. And Dr. Walensky asked people to be honest with themselves because people who are not vaccinated are putting themselves at risk.

Yeah, I mean, Allison, this was the part that kind of blew me away. I mean, this puts the burden on individuals to do the right thing by themselves and also by others. And I don't know, I don't think we have evidence that an honor system will work in the U.S., especially with the stakes being this high. Well, there definitely are critics. Mark Perrone is president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents about 1.3 million frontline retail and grocery store workers. He says the guidance is confusing and that the CDC has failed to consider how it will impact essential workers

who face frequent exposure to people who are not vaccinated and some refuse to wear masks. I think that the guidance should be is that people should wear masks, at least until we get to that herd immunity number. We're not there yet. We only have about 40% of the population fully vaccinated. And I think that we could have waited another couple of months. And there's also similar concern from nurses, Maddie. The leaders of the National Nurses United, which is the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S.

say the new policy threatens the lives of patients, nurses and other frontline workers across the country. Yeah. And when we talk about essential workers, I think it's important to remember that our essential workers are disproportionately from Black and brown communities. And the Biden administration and CDC have said that vaccine equity is a top priority, yet here they are loosening guidance when in most places, Black and Hispanic people have still received smaller shares of vaccinations. So to me, it doesn't really feel like this change in guidance was made with some of the hardest hit communities in mind. Well, vaccination rates are lower in many of these communities, even though polls suggest that interest in vaccines are similar across racial groups. Nurses have been making this point. National Nurses United, the group I just mentioned, say the guidelines will disproportionately harm

Black, Indigenous, and people of color, pointing to the inequities in the vaccine rollout. One example, in the District of Columbia, Black people make up almost half of the population of the city, 70% of the deaths of the city during the pandemic, but have received only 31% of vaccinations. That's according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And that's a trend in a lot of the states. Yeah. I mean, Allison, is the hope that the new mask policy will motivate people to get vaccinated? Because, you know, without there being enforcement, I could really see this going either way. Well, you know, I think that is the hope.

I mean, when Walmart announced it was lifting its masking requirement, the company also announced a $75 cash bonus available to U.S. employees who opt to get vaccinated. When the Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, announced the lifting of the mask mandate in that state, he urged people, go out, get that shot. He said there are hundreds of thousands of available appointments. So, you know, in the days leading up to this announcement, the number of daily vaccinations had been declining quite a bit. So there's still a lot of work needed to do to motivate people or to help people get to the place where they can be vaccinated. Another factor to watch here, Maddie, is the demand from families with 12 to 15 year olds. I spoke to Rodrigo Martinez of CIC Health. That group is operating vaccination centers in Massachusetts,

including one at the Chelsea Senior Center. And since they began vaccinating adolescents 12 to 15 last week, they've had some crowds. I'm actually here at the front of the line of the walk-in and there's a family with three kids, 14 and another friend, actually 14 and another daughter, 12. So we're definitely seeing the numbers increasing, which is great. Now, kids typically come with a parent, not surprising. Massachusetts does require parental consent. But in some states and the District of Columbia, minors may consent to a vaccine on their own if certain conditions are met. Okay. And younger kids under 12 aren't eligible for the vaccine, right? When might that change? Well, studies are ongoing. Clinical trial spots, which have filled up very quickly,

the practice where my kids go, had a lottery because there is such high demand. So many families want their kids in that trial. It's just a way to get the vaccine early. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Lee Beers, says pediatricians are hearing that September is a reasonable estimate. Now, that depends on the data, the review process. I think for now, the focus is really getting the middle school and high school age kids vaccinated. I actually spoke to Dr. Beers' 12-year-old son, Jonah Beers, who was just vaccinated over the weekend. Most of my friends have either been vaccinated or getting vaccinated this week. So my message would be that they should get the vaccine because it would help everybody get back to normal and so

that you can like hang out with your friends. So you can like hang out with your friends. Right, right. We get that. He told me that he will be fully vaccinated just in time for his 13th birthday, which he says will be nice because last year it was a virtual party. And who wants that again? Who wants a birthday party on Zoom? I hear you, Jonah. I hear you. Okay. All right.

So, Allison, I think we should talk about breakthrough infections. I mean, these are instances where people test positive for the virus after being fully vaccinated. I know people have been talking about this more following the news of positive cases with the Yankees baseball team in New York. You know, I do think this can be unsettling just to read these headlines. But if you look at the numbers, breakthrough cases are pretty uncommon, especially ones that lead to serious illness. Now, in the case of the Yankees, nine people, including coaches, staff members, and a player tested positive. They had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and that vaccine was shown in a clinical trial to be about 85% effective against serious COVID. Now, I spoke to virologist Angela Rasmussen

of the University of Saskatchewan and Georgetown University about this. I think that breakthrough infections are really something that we would expect because no vaccine is 100% effective. But if they're not getting sick because of those breakthrough infections and the vast majority of those Yankees players were asymptomatic, they're not transmitting it to others. It's really much less of a concern. I mean, this is really the power of the vaccines, right? They prevent the vast majority of people from getting infected. And when people do get infected and get sick, overwhelmingly, those cases aren't severe.

So, you know, I kind of understand the CDC wanting to make that science clear, wanting to motivate people to get it. But I'm worried it's too soon and whether we're really centering our most vulnerable populations and those that have been hit the hardest. Interesting. I do think all along we've been told that the path back to normal or the new normal will come incrementally, slowly over time. It will be a dial, not a light switch, we've heard. These most recent changes may feel like a light switch to some. Things are changing. Now let's just keep an eye on those vaccination numbers. Okay, Allison, we appreciate you coming by and breaking the news down with us, as always.

Thanks. Great to be here. This episode was edited by Jane Greenhalgh in Viet Le, produced by Thomas Liu and fact-checked by Rasha Irini. I'm Maddie Safaya, and you're listening to Shortwave, the daily science podcast from NPR.