Short Wave - Breaking Down The New CDC Mask Guidance

Episode Date: July 29, 2021

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance on wearing masks. Short Wave co-host Maddie Sofia and NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey explain what's changed and why. Plus, the latest on the Delta variant, a highly transmissible strain of the coronavirus. Want to see how widespread COVID-19 is in your local community? Check out this data tracker from NPR. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Here in the U.S., we are in the midst of a new surge of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. The surge, in part, is due to a very transmissible strain of the coronavirus. We know now that the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for more than 80% of COVID cases in this country, and it appears to spread about twice as fast as the original strain. The CDC now says everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear masks indoors in public spaces if they're in an area where the coronavirus cases are surging. Joining me today is Science Desk correspondent Alison Aubrey. Hi, Allison.

Hey there, Maddie. Great to be here. Talk to me a little bit about this guidance. Back in May, the CDC said that fully vaccinated people could take off their masks in most settings. But two things have changed. Vaccination rates have slowed down. And the CDC said, the Delta variant keeps spreading. And Allison, public health experts that you've been talking to have been advocating for this change, right? Yes, absolutely. Many thought the decision to lift the mask mandate in this spring wasn't well thought out. And the CDC has been too slow to respond as cases creep back up. Here's Dr. Zeke Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania.

The CDC's position on masks has been behind the eight ball almost every step of the way. And the announcement is seen by some people as they, the agency kind of playing catch up after weeks of experts saying, hey, cases are rising, many people remain unvaccinated. It makes sense to mask up in these indoor public settings. So today in the show, we're going over the CDC's new mask guidance, what it is, why it's been changed, and what some public health folks are saying about it. I'm Maddie Safaya, and you're listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science Podcast from NPR. All right, Allison, just two little months ago, you and I,

were on the show talking about how the CDC said vaccinated people should feel free to lose their masks in almost all settings, including indoors. Yeah, I mean, this guidance was basically based on the honor system. In most places, you just kind of had to take someone's word for it, whether they were vaccinated. And I remember, Maddie, you and I shared some concerns about vaccine equity, rates of vaccination still being low, and how this might affect people who are most vulnerable. Yeah, and here we are today amid a surge of cases here to talk about how the CDC is now modifying some of that guidance. Can you tell us more about how the CDC made this decision? Sure. It really comes down to two main factors. I mean, the Delta variant and slowing vaccinations.

About 30% of adults remain unvaccinated in the U.S., meaning there's this huge group of people who are still vulnerable to the virus. Kids under 12 can't be vaccinated. People with compromised immune systems don't always get full protection from the vaccine. So there's a huge vulnerable too. And there's something more here, Maddie. New data suggests that vaccinated people who get infected with the Delta variant could transmit it to others. Here's CDC director Rochelle Willensky. The vaccination may be contagious and this and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation. And she really points out that this is different from previous variants. Unlike the alpha variant that we had back in May where we didn't

believe that if you were vaccinated, you could transmit further. This is different now with the Delta variant. And Allison, we should be clear here, right? The vaccines are still doing their job against the Delta variant. These vaccines are designed to prevent vaccinated people from getting really sick or dying, and they are still doing a stellar job of that. That's absolutely right. These infections and vaccinated people tend to be much less severe,

especially in otherwise healthy people. symptoms are mostly mild. Some people are asymptomatic. They don't get any symptoms at all. Now, me personally, I don't even want that within how unpredictable this virus is. But the bare concern here, Maddie, is that even if you aren't very sick, you could spread the delta variant to others, people who are much more vulnerable and they could get sick and die. Plus, we've talked about this on the show a lot. The longer that COVID is circulating in our population, the more likely it is for a variant to emerge that could beat the vaccine. So really, everybody has a stake in this. You know, it's a good point. I mean, a virus cannot mutate if it's not replicating. And so as Delta circulates and cases rise,

we know the virus is trying to outsmart us. Okay, Alison, let's dig into this guidance a little bit more. So the CDC now says if you live in an area with substantial or high spread of the virus, everyone should mask up indoors. What does that mean exactly? The CDC is just using indicators of how much the virus is spreading. They consider substantial spread to be when an area has 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 people. High spread is areas where there are 100 cases or more per 100,000 people. This is something that the CDC tracks. It's certainly not the only metric, but it's certainly a decent indicator. And Allison, right now, which parts of the country fall into that category, the substantial or high spread? Maddie, really, it's much of the country, with the exception of the

northeast, parts of the upper Midwest. I mean, throughout the south and lower Midwest, it looks like almost all of the counties are in the orange or red zone. The same is true for much of the West. So people can check the rates in their own communities as they make decisions about masking. We have put a link to a CDC map that breaks it down to the county level, and you can check it out in the episode notes. Yeah, I mean, I've heard people talk about it like checking the weather before you get dressed. You know, you've got to know what's going on out there to be prepared. I check it a lot, especially when I'm traveling to a new place. Wow.

All right. You're on it. Okay. So a lot of kids will be going back to school several weeks from now. And there was also a change in the guidance for schools. That's right. The CDC is now recommending universal masking indoors for all teachers, staff, students, visitors to school. This is from kindergarten through 12th grade, regardless of your vaccination status.

This is a change from earlier this month when the eight. agency had said that fully vaccinated students and teachers didn't need to wear a mask. Dr. Walensky says this is due to rising cases and low vaccination rates. With only 30% of our kids between 12 and 17 fully vaccinated now and a real effort to try and make sure that our kids can safely get back to full in-person learning, we're recommending that everybody wear masks right now. You know, it's really a simple step to offer protection. especially because it is hard for schools to kind of keep track of who's vaccinated, who isn't. I spoke to Judy Guzman Cottrell.

She's a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Oregon Health and Science University about this. When I talk to leaders of schools, they say that they don't have the capacity to effectively monitor who's vaccinated, who's not. And I worry that some students will be singled out for wearing masks at school. and this can lead to bullying and peer pressure to unmask, even when it's not safe to do so. So if there's universal masking, it just makes it easier. And Allison, you've also been reporting about another kind of policy in play, and that's vaccine mandates. Over the last few days, there's been a flurry of announcements. What have you learned?

Well, you know, more than 50 medical groups have called for mandatory vaccinations of all health care workers. I mean, some hospitals are only at about 50% of employees vaccinated. And really, this isn't a new concept in a hospital setting. Many hospitals have required employees, for instance, to get flu shots over the years. In addition, California has announced a vaccine requirement for state employees. In New York City, there's a mandate that covers teachers, firefighters, police. And a growing list of universities say that they'll make COVID vaccinations mandatory this fall, with exemptions for religious or medical reasons.

And of course, you know, anybody who's gone off to college knows that colleges have required students who live in dorms to be vaccinated against a number of diseases. And I read that Cal State has said it would wait for full FDA approval of vaccines, but it's actually announced a change amid the surge in Delta cases and they're going to go for it. That's right. And if you look at nursing homes where about 61 percent of employees have been vaccinated, there have been reports of outbreaks linked to unvaccinated workers. So there's a big push right now for mandates in nursing homes, too. And at this point, Alison, we have enough data to prove that it's worth it, right? To get as many people protected as possible. Absolutely. I mean, there's new evidence from Israel published in the New England Journal. Healthcare workers who have been vaccinated have been about 98% protected against breakthrough infections.

Okay, Alison, before you go, real quick, I want to return to this new mask guidance and how we should be thinking about all of this. I mean, to me, this is the CDC recognizing that things have and will continue to change and that we have to change with it. So I'm very glad that the CDC has updated their guidance here because of the surge and also because we can't just vaccinate our way out of this pandemic. You know, I think it's fair to say that this guidance will result in more masking for everyone in high-risk areas right now. And that's good because we need to be using multiple forms of prevention, masking, increasing ventilation testing. We know how to do all this now. And we have to keep doing all of it,

especially as we go up against more dangerous variants. You know, Maddie, I think the big point here is that as much as we all would have wished and hoped, the pandemic is not over yet. And we're going to have to stay flexible. We're not back to square one. I mean, no one is suggesting that we need to lock down. But we do need to be cautious as Delta sweeps through the country. All right, Alison Aubrey.

As usual, thank you so much. and we appreciate you for coming on the show. Great to be here. This episode was produced by Britt Hansen, edited by Giselle Grayson, and fact-checked by Indy Kara. I'm Maddie Safaya. Thanks for listening to Shortwave from NPR.

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