The nation's leading infectious disease expert says Americans have "misinterpreted" health officials' revised guidance on wearing protective face coverings.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated rules say masks aren't required in some situations for people who have been vaccinated -- but most people haven't read past the "masks aren't required" part. "I think people are misinterpreting, thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone," Fauci says. "That's not what the CDC said. They said, 'If you are vaccinated, you can feel safe' — that you will not get infected either outdoors or indoors. It did not explicitly say that unvaccinated people should abandon their masks."
Announcing the revised guidance last week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said, "Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing. If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy."
Do you still wear a mask? Do you think a lot of people will continue wearing masks once the pandemic is over?