The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can forgo their masks and social distancing in many indoor situations.
“Today, CDC is updating our guidance for fully vaccinated people,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday at a White House COVID-19 briefing. “Anyone who is fully vaccinated, can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing. If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”
According to the CDC website, vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance, as well as resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
Thursday’s guidance represented a sharp break with the incremental changes CDC had been making in recent weeks. In late April, for example, the agency revised its outdoor mask guidance, but it made so many distinctions — between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, small gatherings and large ones — that attracted even more confusion and frustration. Then, CDC was harshly criticized for its surprisingly strict recommendations on mask use in summer camps, where it wanted everyone aged two and up wear a mask at all times regardless of their vaccination status.
Ever since the vaccines became available, the government officials, CDC, Big Tech and Big Pharma, and many celebrities pushed the vaccines as the means to “return back to normal” while all the restrictions remained in place. Dr. Fauci — fully vaccinated and still wearing two masks — continuously repeated the same message about the way Americans should conduct themselves after being vaccinated and allowed them little to no freedom. With vaccination rates soaring, and experts talking about the county actually reaching herd immunity, the dissatisfaction with the medical authorities becomes palpable. Under pressure from the public and the GOP, the CDC and the Biden administration, apparently, decided to switch its approach from sticks to carrots to get people vaccinated.
GOP: “Free at last”
Republicans in the U.S. Congress reacted jubilantly and removed their masks after the CDC announced the update.
“Free at last,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said as he left the chamber.
Inside the Senate, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), was seen waving her mask in the air in celebration. Together with Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), she removed her mask and yelled “freedom” in celebration of the news.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters that she and other Republican senators removed their masks during a meeting with President Biden once the CDC guidance was made official. Biden removed his mask, too, she said.
According to Reuters, over in the House of Representatives, most members appeared to be still wearing their masks on the floor during afternoon votes. But one of them rose, maskless, to protest.
“Madam Speaker … I ask that given the updated CDC guidance, we all take off these stupid masks,” declared Representative Brian Mast (R-Fla.), demonstratively placing his mask on the seat behind him. Reportedly, over 30 House Republicans sent a letter to Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asking her to lift the mask mandate in the House.
Biden: Get Vaxxed or Go Masked
Joe Biden, a true mask zealot who wore a mask on Zoom calls with foreign leaders and insisted on wearing one outside even after being fully vaccinated for months, now made an about-face and celebrated the new CDC mask guidance, saying, “Today is a great day for America.” The “Great day,” however, was spoiled by the following remark: “For now, after a year of hard work and so much sacrifice, the rule is very simple: Get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do.” To spread the word, he also duplicated it on Twitter.
Of course, the legality behind making a “rule” that says people have to “get vaccinated” with experimental injections is questionable. The FDA has only granted emergency use authorizations (EUA) for the experimental mRNA vaccines, and the clinical trials the FDA will rely upon to ultimately decide whether to license these vaccines are still underway. The FDA’s guidance on EUA specified that people “have the option to accept or refuse the EUA product.”
Biden also did not provide any detail on the “rule” requiring unvaccinated people to wear masks — for a disease with a consistently low level of infection and a survival rate of 99.997 percent for 0-19-year-olds and 94.6 percent for those 70 and older — where state mandates are not in place. It seems that the President assumes unvaccinated people pose a threat and must be “punished” for rejecting the experimental jab.
States’ Response
To date, 25 state governments currently require people to wear face coverings in most public settings. The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also have mask orders in place, while 14 states that had mask orders have lifted them. Soon after the update from CDC, the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington began to adjust their mask-wearing guidance. Unrelated to the update, even California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) plans to lift his state’s mask mandate in mid-June, citing the state’s high vaccination rate and low COVID-19 infection rate.
According to Forbes, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina officials have said they are reviewing the new guidance, but have not decided to lift statewide mandates at this time. Indianapolis and Maine announced they will be sticking with the mask mandate for now.
