The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is standing firm and resisting pressure to change its guidance on masks. Two of the Biden administration’s top doctors expressed qualified optimism about the direction of the pandemic, but warned that “we are not there yet.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the chief medical adviser for the Covid pandemic, and Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the CDC director, have said that if cases continue to drop and no new variant emerges, the United States could be heading towards normality.
But Dr. Fauci was quick to add caution to the situation, saying it is still unpredictable. He said that any transition away from the current trajectory would be taken gradually.
Dr. Walensky said that while the CDC is working to develop new guidance for states, it is too soon for the public to go fully mask-less inside public places.
She said that hospitalizations and death rates are still high. Therefore the country should be working towards doing away with masks, but the country is not there yet.
It comes as states are in a bit of a frenzy to shed their mask mandates. New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island yesterday joined a wave of blue states ending mask mandates. The shift in guidelines is a sign that states are changing how they manage the ongoing Covid pandemic, now that the most recent surge caused by the mega-transmissible variant Omicron begins to subside.
One poll shows that almost half of Americans are over the pandemic, showing that the public’s resolve to combat the pandemic is waning.
Covid rules are soon to be axed in the United Kingdom, but experts say that questions remain in England over how the infection rate will be controlled. Prime Minister Boris Johnson signaled that restrictions would be scrapped much earlier than anticipated, likely by the end of this month. No details have been provided, and it remains unclear whether there was any specific scientific advice provided for this shift.
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