Who thinks the CDC will roll back their new mask rules from two days ago?

[OhBother1984]

I agree. The original thought was masks would not be required for vaccinated individuals. I'm not sure that message should have been vacated. I believe we would be much further along with the process. It's highly unlikely to transmit outdoors and/or if you've had both jabs. I'd like to see the recommendations change for children too. They have robust immune systems and I'm not enthusiastic about them getting poked at this time. Just my thoughts.

I agree. If 2-11 are approved in September there will not be a ton rushing out to get it, but I have my doubts that they will be, I could totally be wrong though. I think we will hear over the summer how extremely low risk they really are.

They did alot of damage with the message that vaccinated nothing changes because they might spread and such, even though the probability of that being the case was so low.

 

[Kitty 34]

I agree. If 2-11 are approved in September there will not be a ton rushing out to get it, but I have my doubts that they will be, I could totally be wrong though. I think we will hear over the summer how extremely low risk they really are.

They did alot of damage with the message that vaccinated nothing changes because they might spread and such, even though the probability of that being the case was so low.

I think, also, the double masking of those vaccinated sent an odd confusing message back in winter/early Spring.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I agree. The original thought was masks would not be required for vaccinated individuals. I'm not sure that message should have been vacated. I believe we would be much further along with the process. It's highly unlikely to transmit outdoors and/or if you've had both jabs. I'd like to see the recommendations change for children too. They have robust immune systems and I'm not enthusiastic about them getting poked at this time. Just my thoughts.

I think the original thought was that vaccinated people would not have to wear masks once enough of us were vaccinated. Honestly, I was surprised that this announcement came so early. However, the studies released show that these vaccines are *so* good (particularly the mRNA ones), that we can move more quickly. We are now at the point where essentially any adult who wanted to get a vaccine...could have gotten one. We've started the process of vaccinating 12-15 year olds who are at a slightly higher risk than younger children. Lots and lots of people on this board and these threads have been screaming for the CDC to give an incentive for people to get the vaccine. Well....they just did that. They're actually ahead of many states and businesses now....saying it's ok for the vaccinated to take off masks indoors (for the most part).

I'm in NJ, and my governor still hasn't given the ok. I'm sure almost all businesses will wait as well. So, I will continue to respect my fellow New Jerseyans and do the right thing...and wear my mask. But, I'm feeling very, very good about the real world studies that we are seeing with respect to the mRNA vaccine that I received. I hope that many more Americans will come off the sidelines now and help us all to get back to something resembling life before the pandemic.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

There will still be a lot of vaccinated people wearing masks, plus it takes 6 weeks to be fully vaccinated, my second shot is in 2 weeks so I have a month to go (waited a bit because I had covid in March).

The definition CDC uses is 2 weeks time period after. If someone got it right on schedule it'd be 2 weeks for J&J, 5 weeks for Pfizer and 6 weeks for Moderna.

ETA: includes total time with both doses for Pfizer (21 days apart) and Moderna (28 days apart)

 

[amylevan]

The US’s 7 day average of cases hasn’t been this low since June 2020, and the number of deaths haven’t been this low since APRIL 2020. That means the number of people carrying covid is at its lowest in a long time. Combine that with those who’ve been vaccinated (nearing 40%) and those with natural immunity, and your risk is dropping every day.

Those numbers in combination with real world studies confirming that vaccinated people are not getting or spreading combine to make really good news. If you are vaccinated, you really have nothing to worry about.

The CDC said if you’re not vaccinated, you still need to wear a mask. Everyone’s issue on here seems to be that people will take them off anyhow. Well there are states and locals all around this country where masks aren’t required. I live in a mask state and my local area is compliant, but my parents live in a different part of the same state, and except for her grocery store, theres been low compliance for months. So what exactly is changing there?

Still worried? Well, if you’re not vaccinated, start there. If you are, wear a mask if you want. Continue to maintain 6’ distance from people. Avoid crowds.

I’m 10 days past my second shot, and so looking forward to dropping this mask. Because there is an extremely low chance that I will get and/or spread covid. And that’s GOOD news.

 

[Kellykins1218]

I donate platelets. Whole blood donors have to wait 8 weeks, or 16 if they give double reds. Platelet donors can do it every 7 days, but I do it once a month so that my losses don't get too high and my arms have enough time to heal in between venipunctures.

Plasma donors can give once every four weeks.

I was just going to say something about this. I donate platelets every 2-3 weeks. If I don't go by 4 weeks they are calling me begging for a donation. They have even offered to come pick me up when my car was in the shop lol. I am part of the rare group of adults who is CMV-negative so my platelets are safe to give to kids with weakened immune systems.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A quantifiable goal to work towards.

I don't disagree with you about how they dropped and what they dropped because we're seeing the fallout from it (see my earlier comment about concern towards wearibg/not wearing a mask that another poster brought up) but speaking towards the above unfortunately when you set goals you really have to stick with them or you lose credibility and if the people aren't confident that you'll stick with them they may choose to ignore and if you set an unrealistic goal you may find yourself being recalled.

My county set the goal of 50% 1st dose goal for allowing the mask mandate to expire, oh they said "we're confident we'll get there by end of April" which is when the mandate was set to expire. They dropped it anyways before they hit that. The goal was met 2 weeks later but still. That's just my county.

Percentage-based (especially 70%) is largely unattainable and cases is hard when on a national level because you'd have places sitting there fine for a long time. I think they should have waited a bit longer more because of the whiplash of their earlier messaging a short time ago but I don't think, even as practical as it may be, setting goals would have worked for us as a nation. As is what you're going to see is areas of lower vaccination rates become risk factors for places of higher vaccination and that is location dependent even with one's own state. Hard to make the entire state sit back because you can't get the rest of the state on board even if you're looking at it from the virus spreading standpoint.

I really don't disagree with you but I think they also knew they only had so much time left. They have been heavily criticized for moving too slowly and they kinda hit the panic button here but they would have gotten to the point likely soonish, it sucks for those of us fully vaccinated having to worry about who is following guidance and who isn't, it sucks for those unable to medically get the vaccine or complete the full series to be considered fully vaccinated. It just sucks. Hopefully parents will choose to allow their kids to be vaccinated (or support ones if they live in an area where parental consent isn't required) but that's not looking good at the moment.

 

[tippity]

CA is actually doing great. We still have the lowest positive percentage in the nation. And our mask mandates will be mostly dropped on June 15th. San Francisco has something like 78% vaccinated. My county announced yesterday we have over 70% vaccinated. That’s before accounting for 12-15 yr olds. That’s huge.

California is below the US average for vaccination rates ( percent of population), per the Johns Hopkins database.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines/us-states
I wouldn't consider this "kicking butt"

 

[magik]

I don't disagree with you about how they dropped and what they dropped because we're seeing the fallout from it (see my earlier comment about concern towards wearibg/not wearing a mask that another poster brought up) but speaking towards the above unfortunately when you set goals you really have to stick with them or you lose credibility and if the people aren't confident that you'll stick with them they may choose to ignore and if you set an unrealistic goal you may find yourself being recalled.

My county set the goal of 50% 1st dose goal for allowing the mask mandate to expire, oh they said "we're confident we'll get there by end of April" which is when the mandate was set to expire. They dropped it anyways before they hit that. The goal was met 2 weeks later but still. That's just my county.

Percentage-based (especially 70%) is largely unattainable and cases is hard when on a national level because you'd have places sitting there fine for a long time. I think they should have waited a bit longer more because of the whiplash of their earlier messaging a short time ago but I don't think, even as practical as it may be, setting goals would have worked for us as a nation. As is what you're going to see is areas of lower vaccination rates become risk factors for places of higher vaccination and that is location dependent even with one's own state. Hard to make the entire state sit back because you can't get the rest of the state on board even if you're looking at it from the virus spreading standpoint.

I really don't disagree with you but I think they also knew they only had so much time left. They have been heavily criticized for moving too slowly and they kinda hit the panic button here but they would have gotten to the point likely soonish, it sucks for those of us fully vaccinated having to worry about who is following guidance and who isn't, it sucks for those unable to medically get the vaccine or complete the full series to be considered fully vaccinated. It just sucks. Hopefully parents will choose to allow their kids to be vaccinated (or support ones if they live in an area where parental consent isn't required) but that's not looking good at the moment.

I agree with you from a realistic standpoint, and I recognize that the thresholds I wish had been set to remove masking for anyone are probably unattainable, but I’m pretty risk averse. In my heart I have always known that safety guidelines would change before I personally am comfortable with. Wishful thinking on my part.

I follow “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog, and even if CDC had waited for what she called a “smarter deimplementation strategy” (59% vaccinated OR every American has the opportunity to get the vaccine OR transmission has slowed to low levels), I’d feel better about it. Any deimplementation strategy that acknowledges and addresses the risk of new variants would have made me more comfortable. I’d rather be overly cautious and wear a mask a few more months and be in a good situation than end up back at square one in 6 months with a new, vaccine-resistant variant, but I recognize there are plenty of people who are perfectly comfortable to open the floodgates and let what is going to happen, happen. Also, no guarantee that we’d be at low transmission rates or 59% population vaccinated in a few months, and as you implied, people’s patience with covid safety precautions is wearing thin. Who knows. Maybe we’ll get lucky and no new variants of concern will appear before we get a high enough percentage of population immunity through vaccination or infection that our transmission rates will get to low levels even without masking required for all.

 

[Colleen27]

Thats really weird. My sister is pregnant and her doctor advised her to get the vaccine, although he wanted her to wait until 2nd trimester. But as soon as she hit the 14 week mark, she got her first shot. She’s 20 weeks now - just had an ultrasound. From what I understand, pregnant women are among the highest risk of adverse outcomes from COVID.

Yeah, it struck me as odd too, and very worrisome because none of the people she's closest to are willing to vaccinate to protect her. This girl's whole family is refusing to get the vaccine "for a few years" because it is too soon to know what the effects are, even though her mom has serious comorbidities that would make it highly likely to turn serious and her grandmother almost died from it over the winter, and her boyfriend flirts with Q-level conspiracy theories. There really aren't words for how worried I am about her catching covid. Michigan's numbers have improved a lot but we're still the state with the second-highest level of current virus activity and a positivity percentage of close to triple the 3% target.

But she's a pregnant 19yo. She's not going to question/challenge her doctor's advice, even if it does disagree with that of the CDC and the ACOG.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

California is below the US average for vaccination rates ( percent of population), per the Johns Hopkins database.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/vaccines/us-states
I wouldn't consider this "kicking butt"

Well first, I didn’t say “kicking butt”. I said CA is doing is great. We are. We DO have the lowest percent positive in the nation. Also remember population sizes. It’s much easier to get a state with 1.5 million fully vaccinated than it is to get one of 39.5 million. And the vaccination rates I mentioned for my county and San Francisco are accurate. LA County, a hot spot, is expected to reach herd immunity in July.

But also, the CDC disagrees with you. We’re above average in all age groups, towards the top in 18+ and one of the top in 12+. So yeah, we’re doing great.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
ETA: The Johns Hopkins percentage is way is off. CA has 48.3% fully vaccinated. And another 15.2% partially vaccinated. That puts us way ahead on the chart you posted.

https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/

 

[Shellsbutt]

So I went to Costco today and the lady at the front said local mandates require that I ask if you have a mask. I smiled and said I did and then went about my business in the store maskless. Nobody said a word and the checker was very cordial. This was in a bluer part of Orange County that has it's own city wide mask mandate. I was literally the only one I saw in the store without a mask, save for the few "fence sitters" with their noses sticking out. If everyone waits for everyone else to take off their masks then we'll all be waiting! Be the change you want to see in the world!

Thank you for the info and encouragement! I'm just a timid person by nature(introvert) and I don't like confrontations. I'm going to put my mask in my pocket and see what happens. I hate that I've been put in this position and it almost feels like I'm doing something illegal if I enter a store without my mask. I know that's my own attitude and I have to change that, my mental health has taken a nose dive since all this began. We live in such crazy times!

 

[Monykalyn]

If you don't know that the majority of extended school closures were largely directed by various large teachers unions and their political influences, I don't know what to tell you.

Oh I agree-the complete overreaction/power grab by the bully unions is what I meant

 

[wenrob]

Well first, I didn’t say “kicking butt”. I said CA is doing is great. We are. We DO have the lowest percent positive in the nation. Also remember population sizes. It’s much easier to get a state with 1.5 million fully vaccinated than it is to get one of 39.5 million. And the vaccination rates I mentioned for my county and San Francisco are accurate. LA County, a hot spot, is expected to reach herd immunity in July.

But also, the CDC disagrees with you. We’re above average in all age groups, towards the top in 18+ and one of the top in 12+. So yeah, we’re doing great.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations

I was the one who said “kicking butt” and I maintain that assertion.

 

[Verity_]

Thank you for the info and encouragement! I'm just a timid person by nature(introvert) and I don't like confrontations. I'm going to put my mask in my pocket and see what happens. I hate that I've been put in this position and it almost feels like I'm doing something illegal if I enter a store without my mask. I know that's my own attitude and I have to change that, my mental health has taken a nose dive since all this began. We live in such crazy times!

Maybe just call and ask about the store's current policy. We have some stores in our area that continue to require a mask now, and others that don't.

 

[Heigh-Ho]

So I went to Costco today and the lady at the front said local mandates require that I ask if you have a mask. I smiled and said I did and then went about my business in the store maskless. Nobody said a word and the checker was very cordial. This was in a bluer part of Orange County that has it's own city wide mask mandate. I was literally the only one I saw in the store without a mask, save for the few "fence sitters" with their noses sticking out. If everyone waits for everyone else to take off their masks then we'll all be waiting! Be the change you want to see in the world!

I'm confused, if you're in an area where local mandates require that they ask if you have a mask does that mean you're supposed to be wearing a mask? Did you just go around Costco without a mask despite you needing to (if that's what the local mandate states) because you wanted to? Are you fully vaccinated and your local mandate allows for you to not wear a mask because of that?

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I was the one who said “kicking butt” and I maintain that assertion.

Don’t get me wrong - I totally agree with you. Whether others agree our strict mitigation factors helped or not, we did a lot of hard work to get here. And after such a horrible winter, I think kicking butt is accurate.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I'm confused, if you're in an area where local mandates require that they ask if you have a mask does that mean you're supposed to be wearing a mask? Did you just go around Costco without a mask despite you needing to (if that's what the local mandate states) because you wanted to? Are you fully vaccinated and your local mandate allows for you to not wear a mask because of that?

I think that poster said they’re in CA. We actually still have a state mandate until June 15th, so yes it was against that.

 

[Pink Partridge]

I'm confused, if you're in an area where local mandates require that they ask if you have a mask does that mean you're supposed to be wearing a mask? Did you just go around Costco without a mask despite you needing to (if that's what the local mandate states) because you wanted to? Are you fully vaccinated and your local mandate allows for you to not wear a mask because of that?

But this is where the confusion comes in.

The CDC says you don't have to wear a mask if you are vaccinated.

I will obey local store rules. Some will follow the science that CDC has presented to them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well first, I didn’t say “kicking butt”. I said CA is doing is great. We are. We DO have the lowest percent positive in the nation. Also remember population sizes. It’s much easier to get a state with 1.5 million fully vaccinated than it is to get one of 39.5 million. And the vaccination rates I mentioned for my county and San Francisco are accurate. LA County, a hot spot, is expected to reach herd immunity in July.

But also, the CDC disagrees with you. We’re above average in all age groups, towards the top in 18+ and one of the top in 12+. So yeah, we’re doing great.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
ETA: The Johns Hopkins percentage is way is off. CA has 48.3% fully vaccinated. And another 15.2% partially vaccinated. That puts us way ahead on the chart you posted.

https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/

Do you think the differences may be how they count individuals? Like in-state vs out of state?

I know my county's data does not include county residents who received their shots not within our state (like our neighboring state). The state data is supposed to be sharable but the county information does not. It's been explained to us that the CDC has the information from outside of the area for my specific area. IDK just wondering. Throughout all of this I feel like I've constantly been chasing what the metrics mean and how they came to it lol.