The CDC’s mask guidelines are scientifically sound — if you actually read them

Why the CDC is so confident that (most) fully vaccinated people can go maskless.

After a year of public health guidance to wear masks whenever we are out in public, taking them off after being vaccinated may feel ... weird. The trauma of the pandemic has etched a new set of social norms deep within many minds. And central to those norms is mask-wearing.

So it’s understandable that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s surprise announcement last week that it had changed its masking guidelines for fully vaccinated people feels like whiplash. The CDC now says those who are fully vaccinated (or two weeks after their final dose of the vaccine) can “resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing” in places that allow it. (The CDC also stresses extra caution, and a consultation with a physician, for those vaccinated who have weakened immune systems or are on immune-system-suppressing drugs.)

There are a lot of fair arguments circulating that these guidelines were issued prematurely and lacking some nuance. And it’s hard to know how unvaccinated people, and those who never intend to be vaccinated, will respond, particularly as local communities and businesses grow laxer when it comes to enforcing masking. The guidelines also neglect the reality that the absolute risk for Covid-19 infections among the vaccinated is dependent on the level of Covid-19 spread in a community. Plus, there’s still uncertainty about what to do about children under the age of 12, who currently cannot be vaccinated.

These arguments are worthy of discussion. But they also can distract us from something important at the core of the CDC’s guidelines: There’s good science to indicate that, in an ideal world where everyone does follow these guidelines, fully vaccinated people really can feel comfortable taking their masks off. These vaccines are really good. They prevent disease, infection, and transmission the majority of the time. And the best thing an individual can do to help end the pandemic is to get vaccinated.

“The return to normal activities is safe for vaccinated people, there is no debate about this fact,” Jeffrey Duchin, a physician with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told reporters in a news briefing on Thursday. “However, the announcement led to widespread confusion and frustration because it was unexpected and needed context.”