Flash Report: CDC: No More Masks for Fully Vaccinated

Flash Report: CDC: No More Masks for Fully Vaccinated
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just issued new guidance advising that fully vaccinated people can go about their normal business without a mask or social distancing. The guidance applies to indoor and outdoor activities regardless of event size. But officials, for now, are leaving the mask mandate in place for travel in airplanes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation. The question here in California is how the Cal/OSHA Standards Board will react while they are in the process of modifying the Emergency Standard on COVID, not to mention Governor Gavin Newsom and the teachers’ unions. The Feds – using science - say open it up. Will they?

Workers’ Comp carriers are expected to change their safety guidelines.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things you stopped doing because of the pandemic,” says CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., in announcing the new guidance. “Anyone who is full vaccinated can
participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing.”

Dr. Walensky says recent studies confirming the effectiveness of the approved vaccines are driving the change. “Considering all of these factors, the data on vaccine effectiveness, the science on their ability to protect against circulating variants and our growing understanding of the low risk of transmission to others combined with universal access to vaccines for those 12 and older, today CDC is updating our guidance for fully vaccinated people.”

Individuals are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after the final required dose – either the second shot for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “Anyone who is full vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” Walensky says.