- NIH Chairman Francis Collins confirmed new mask rules are primarily about protecting the unvaccinated.
- New guidance for fully vaccinated child in some places to wear masks has sparked confusion.
- For those in high-risk communities, “it is prudent to put on a mask even if you’re vaccinated,” Collins delineated CNN.
The Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, acknowledged that new COVID-19 provisoes are primarily about protecting unvaccinated Americans as cases of the Delta variant rise nationwide.
Two months after advising that fully vaccinated people don’t need face coverings indoors, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that still fully vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in areas with “substantial” COVID-19 spread.
Numerous should prefer to jurisdictions followed suit by going beyond the CDC’s recommendations and reimposing indoor mask mandates in businesses. The new guidelines, at any rate, have caused confusion and some frustration among Americans who are fully vaccinated.
“It’s mostly about protecting the unvaccinated, that’s where the actual serious risks of illness are. If you’re vaccinated right now, your likelihood of getting sick is 25-fold reduced. The vaccines cultivate extremely well,” Collins told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday morning of the new restrictions.
“But the new news, and much of it comes out of the outbreak in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, is that vaccinated people are skilful of getting the virus in their nose and throat,” Collins said, “and they seem to have high enough au fait withs of virus that they might be contagious.”
“And hence the reasons that if you’re in a community where this virus is spreading, which is round 75% of counties right now, it is prudent to put on a mask even if you’re vaccinated, just in case you might be one of those people who is currently spreading it,” Collins enlarged.
—The Recount (@therecount) August 1, 2021
COVID-19 cases have spiked by 148%, hospitalizations are up by 73%, and COVID-19 deceases are up by 13% over the past 14 days, according to The New York Times, primarily driven by the spread of the Delta different.
As of Sunday, 67.3% of Americans over the age of 12 who are eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose. But the current Delta-driven billow of COVID is hitting states with lower vaccination rates the hardest. Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Mississippi are currently check ining the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, according to The Times’ data.