Cdc says fully vaccinated people can drop their masks

“Each person has to decide how careful they are going to be,” Schaffner says. The CDC has reported a very small number of breakthrough COVID-19 cases in those who are fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 is usually mild in vaccinated people, with symptoms more like a cold than a serious illness. If you develop symptoms even though you’re fully vaccinated, you should don a mask and

get tested right away, Walensky says. Schaffner says he and his wife will likely continue to wear masks for a while. “We’re down in Tennessee, where the proportion of the population that is

unvaccinated is still very, very high,” he says. “We both have some gray hair, and we both have some minor medical conditions.... That makes us careful and wary.” Epidemiologist Ali Mokdad,

a professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, says he, too, will keep wearing his mask indoors when he is around

others who may be unvaccinated. “I will wear my mask indoors until we reach herd immunity and cases are very low,” he says. STUDIES SHOW THE VACCINES ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE While some may

still choose to wear a mask going forward, Walensky noted Thursday that the fully vaccinated are protected even around those who are unvaccinated, citing real-world studies that show the

COVID-19 vaccines work to prevent not just symptoms, but infection as well. One large study of vaccinated U.S. health care workers found that the vaccines are 90 percent effective at

blocking infection and 94 percent effective at preventing hospitalization. Another found that adults 65 and older who are fully vaccinated were 94 percent less likely to be hospitalized with

COVID-19 than people of the same age who were not vaccinated. Other research shows that the vaccines are effective against the coronavirus variants circulating in the U.S., Walensky noted.

The rapid vaccine rollout has pushed the number of daily coronavirus cases and deaths in the U.S. to their lowest levels since mid-September. The U.S. is averaging about 600 COVID-19 deaths

a day, CDC data shows, down from a high of more than 4,000 on some days in January. DON’T PUT YOUR MASK AWAY JUST YET Walensky says it’s possible the agency’s mask guidance could change

again if cases start to rise. Cherian says he expects it will take a while for some people to become comfortable without a mask, because mask-wearing has become such a social norm. “Social

norms tend to lag behind science and data,” he says. _Michelle Crouch is a contributing writer who has covered health and personal finance for some of the nation’s top consumer publications.

Her work has appeared in _Reader’s Digest, Real Simple, Prevention, The Washington Post _and _The New York Times.