Analysis: Should you continue to wear masks as mandates disappear?

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Thu, 2022-02-10 10:24 — mike kraft

Do you need to keep wearing a mask after mandates lift? At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, local mask mandates are disappearing as quickly as toilet paper did from grocery stores shelves two years ago. At the national level, the guidance to wear masks is staying put, at least for now. Jen Christensen, CNN CNN

The mask landscape

Whether you must wear a mask depends on where you live in the United States. Whether you should is an entirely different matter, experts say.

About a fifth of states never had mask mandates. Some states with more conservative governors, such as Florida, punished schools that put mask mandates in place by withholding funds, even when Covid-19 cases were at record levels.

Officials in Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and California -- states that had more strict mask rules -- announced this week that as cases drop significantly in their areas, people can ditch their masks soon if they choose.

...the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines haven't changed. The agency still advises anyone 2 and older to wear a mask when indoors in public if they are not up to date with their Covid-19 vaccines.

Many Americans are not. Only 42.4% of eligible people -- about 27% of the total population -- are fully vaccinated and boosted, according to the CDC .

In schools, the CDC still recommends that everyone wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has said it's not yet the right time to lift the mandates, though she acknowledged Wednesday that her agency is starting to consider updating its guidance.

"We are working on that guidance. We are working on following the trends for the moment," Walensky said at a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing, adding that even though hospitalizations and death rates are still high, "we are encouraged by the current trends."

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, agreed. He said knows people are sick of masks but urged them to hang in there a little while longer.

"Independent of whether there's mandates or not, I think people should reasonably wear masks when they're indoors for the next few weeks until we're much farther down then where we are right now," Offit said on CNN Newsroom on Tuesday. "We're almost there." ...

Masks work in schools too, studies show; there have been more Covid-19 cases in areas without school masking policies. The American Academy of Pediatrics continues to recommend that all students wear well-fitting masks at school, with an emphasis on indoor masking.

The odds are significantly lower that someone will catch Covid-19 if they consistently wear a face mask in an indoor public setting, according to a study published Friday by the CDC. ...

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