Prescription for pandemic end: Masks off, vaccines on

Should you still wear a mask in close quarters in a store, a restaurant or a gym if you haven’t been vaccinated? Yes, you should. What if you have been fully vaccinated with two shots of an mRNA vaccine? It’s probably not necessary to mask up but I still would, as a precaution against the very small chance that you could pick up the virus and transmit it to others. 

It turns out the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be aerosolized, meaning that it can hang in the air. Hence, poor ventilation and length of exposure to someone who may be infected are far more important factors than is social distancing. 

Multiple population studies over the course of the pandemic have shown that masks have a value, especially indoors among crowds of unvaccinated individuals, but it’s less so now that almost 60 percent of American adults have already received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and new case numbers are decreasing around the country. 

I think that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should have rolled back their mask guidance several weeks ago, as new case numbers and death rates from COVID-19 began to drop, and as it became clearer and clearer that the vaccines not only kept you from getting sick with COVID-19, but also decreased transmission. Government mask mandates should be removed all across the country, and rules should be left to individual businesses.