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For more than a year, public health officials have repeatedly told us that masks save lives. They have warned us to stay away from our neighbors, who have turned into vectors of disease before our very eyes.
Now they tell us that if we were vaccinated, we would no longer need to wear masks or physically distance ourselves in most cases – even indoors. For many people, it seems difficult to reconcile this with long months of hiding, physical distancing, and sacrificing our social lives for fear of contracting COVID-19.
What should the anxious (and wary) soul, exhausted by the epidemic, do?
First, it’s important to stress that the dramatic decline in mask-wearing and physical distancing recommended last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a policy California adopted as part of a broader reopening — applies only to fully vaccinated people.
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Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t need to change your behavior one iota if doing so makes you uncomfortable.
“There is nothing in the CDC guidance that says you should stop wearing a mask,” said Dr. Jose Mayorga, executive director of UCI Health Family Health Centers. “It’s a recommendation, but if you choose to wear one, that’s fine. You don’t have to be stigmatized.”
Mayorga has lost five relatives to COVID-19, including a favorite aunt, and he knows from personal experience how difficult it is to return to an alleged normal life.
“A lot of people haven’t been directly affected by COVID,” he said. “But for those of us, it’s normal to have anxiety or fear, to think, ‘Oh, can I take off my mask?'” But is it really safe? “
Some people are cautious by nature and will not rush to throw off their masks and rub elbows with unmasked strangers.
“I know realistically, I can do pretty much anything once the vaccine is fully vaccinated, but it’s psychologically scary,” said Sacramento resident Shannon Albers, 36, who got her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on May 27. “It would be weird, after a year of digging into us, ‘wear a mask, wear a mask, wear a mask,’ to be around a group of people who don’t wear masks.”
Early in the pandemic, the CDC said masks are not necessary. Then, she changed her guidelines so emphatically that masks have become an indispensable part of our wardrobes. Now the advice has changed again.
“For scientists, it is very understandable that there is a review of recommendations based on new research,” said Roxanne Cohen-Silver, professor of psychology, public health, and medicine at the University of California, Irvine. “But to the general public, that might seem very confusing.”
We don’t know how long vaccine protection lasts, but it is increasingly clear that vaccination reduces the risk of infecting others.
“People who have been vaccinated have a very low risk of infection; “They can do whatever they want to do,” said Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “I think we’re in pretty good shape, and I think it’s going to be a pretty disease-free summer.”
About 46% of the Golden State population is fully vaccinated, trailing many other states but ahead of the national average of just under 43%. Some millions more have gained immunity after contracting the Corona virus.
As more people get protection, the virus finds fewer susceptible bodies, reducing transmission and producing a downward spiral in the number of cases.
In California, the rate of positive coronavirus tests has fallen from a seven-day average of over 17% in early January, at the height of the winter wave, to less than 1% now. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals statewide has fallen from more than 22,000 to less than 1,300 in the same period.
If you’re indoors with other people you know are getting vaccinated, you can dispense with masks. Want to cook dinner for a group of vaccinated friends you haven’t seen for several months? Carpe diem – and don’t worry about wearing masks or sitting apart.
But if you’re in a mixed crowd – say, a grocery store – and don’t know who has been vaccinated, wear a mask, even though your personal risk is low. If workers wear masks, it is respectful that you wear them yourself. Some people may be worried about being there — those who are immunocompromised, for example, or can’t get vaccinated for other health reasons — and won’t know if you’ve had the vaccinations.
“Forget the medical benefit,” said Bradley Bullock, associate dean of public health sciences at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. “If you wear a mask, people who haven’t been vaccinated won’t need to feel uncomfortable around you. So, it’s kind of a matter of compliment.”
Having children is another good reason to cover up. Most children between the ages of 12 and 16 have not yet been vaccinated, and children under the age of 12 cannot receive the vaccination. They will likely be wearing masks at school this fall.
And while children aren’t nearly as infected with COVID-19 as adults, and aren’t effective carriers of the virus, thousands of children have been hospitalized nonetheless — including about 4,000 people nationwide diagnosed with the frightening multi-system inflammatory syndrome.
Mayorga, who is fully vaccinated and has young children, said he is wearing a mask “to protect them and to show good behaviour”.
This report was produced by KHN (Kaiser Health News), one of the three major drivers of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
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