CDC: "If you are vaccinated, it's safe to be outside without a mask."
Health experts emphasize safety of outdoor activities, while mask use indoors advised unless you know everyone around you has been vaccinated
The CDC updated guidelines to indicate that fully vaccinated individuals have very low COVID-19 risk when near others who are vaccinated or when outdoors, so they can ditch their masks most of the time now. Even unvaccinated people are OK without masks when outdoors at a small gathering of family or friends or when walking, running or bicycling.
Masks are still advised for everyone in crowds — including outdoors. Indoors, vaccinated people don’t need masks if everyone else inside with them is vaccinated.
This page summarizes the recommendations and provides links to the scientific data behind the changes.
“If you are vaccinated, it’s safe to be outside without a mask,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “Most transmission is happening indoors.”
Masks are still advised at events or anyplace “where there’s an inability to distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated,” she said. This includes public places such as stores or office buildings.
People who travel, move or can’t return to their original vaccination site for other reasons now can go to any pharmacy participating in the federal COVID-19 vaccination program for their second shot. However, you need your vaccination card to show the details of your first dose.
With more than 141 million Americans vaccinated with at least one dose against COVID-19, rare events such as “breakthrough” infections or lesser known side effects are likely to become more visible. So far, many or most of the breakthrough infections appear to be in people who were not yet 14 days out from their second dose of either Pfizer or Moderna shots or the one dose of the J&J vaccine, so they were not considered “fully vaccinated.” But nearly all of the cases reported have been less severe than would have been expected without the vaccine. Of 5,800 breakthrough infections reported to the CDC, 396 required hospitalization and 74 people died.
Free money: Anyone 16-35 years old in West Virginia will be given a $100 savings bond if they get vaccinated against COVID-19, the governor announced.
Or lose your job: A Miami private school run by self-proclaimed “health freedom” advocates says vaccinated employees are not welcome. In two letters to parents, the school cited false reports of purported dangers that have circulated mostly on right-wing media and amplified by foreign agents.
More than 1,000 vaccine appointments have gone unfilled in Tacoma and Seattle, Washington. Confusion or hesitancy related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is among the factors cited.
Shifting costs of COVID-19 treatment: Insurance companies are ending waivers that covered deductible or other costs of COVID-19 treatments, but the vaccines and tests are still free to individuals through a federal program.