, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Tuesday, the CDC recommended that everyone in wear masks in public indoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
It’s a reversal from the CDC’s May 2021 advice that the fully vaccinated could and brought U.S. guidelines more in line with .
The Conversation asked Peter Chin-Hong, a at the University of California, San Francisco, to help put into context the science behind the changing messages.
What science supports masking after vaccination?
. They’re a literal layer between you and any virus in the air and can help prevent infection.
The reason public health officials are calling for more mask-wearing is that there is clear and mounting evidence that � � . This is particularly true with . The good news is that COVID-19 infection, if it does happen, is in vaccinated people.
Some conditions make a breakthrough infection more likely in a vaccinated person: more virus circulating in the community, lower vaccination rates and more highly transmissible variants.
If vaccinated people can get infected with the coronavirus, . Hence the CDC recommendation that vaccinated people remain masked in indoor public spaces to help stop viral transmission.
Where will the guidelines apply?
The CDC mask recommendation targets areas in the U.S. with more than come back positive during the previous week. “substantial� community transmission is 50 to 99 cases of infection per 100,000 people per week, and “high� is 100 or more.
Los Angeles County, for example, in mid-July, with per week.
Using these criteria, the CDC guidance applied to 63% of U.S. counties on the day it was announced.
Who’s actually protected by masking recommendations?
The recommendation that fully vaccinated people continue wearing masks is primarily intended to protect the unvaccinated � which includes kids under age 12 who are for vaccines in the U.S. The CDC further recommends masking in public for vaccinated people with unvaccinated household members, regardless of local community transmission rates.
Unvaccinated people are at a substantially higher risk of getting infected with and , and of developing complications from COVID-19.
How do new variants like delta change things?
Preliminary data suggests that the rise of variants like delta may increase the chance of breakthrough infections in people who received only their first vaccine dose. For instance, one study found that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine had an effectiveness of just against the older alpha variant in terms of warding off symptomatic disease.
The data is more reassuring for those who have been fully vaccinated. After two doses, the Pfizer vaccine against the delta variant, according to and a variety of other countries; and in and , researchers noted only a “modest� decrease in effectiveness against symptomatic disease, from .
Other recent preliminary reports from highly vaccinated countries like Israel and Singapore are sobering, however. Before the delta variant became widespread, from , Israel reported that the Pfizer vaccine was 97% effective in preventing symptomatic disease. Since , 2021, with the delta variant circulating more widely, the Pfizer vaccine has been only 41% effective in preventing symptomatic disease, according to preliminary data reported by Israel’s Ministry of Health in late July. An analysis using demonstrated that 75% of recent COVID-19 infections were in people who were at least partially vaccinated � though most of them were not severely ill.
In all reports and studies, however, vaccines remain very good at preventing hospitalizations and severe disease due to the delta variant � arguably the outcomes we most care about.
All of this emerging data supports the WHO’s global recommendation that even fully vaccinated individuals continue to wear masks. Most of the world still has and uses a with , and countries have of circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus.
With U.S. case counts and breakthrough infection numbers headed in what public health officials consider the wrong direction, it makes sense that the CDC would modify its masking recommendations to be more conservative.
What conditions in the US warrant masking up (again)?
It makes sense that the CDC didn’t immediately change its recommendations to fall in line with the WHO’s June guidelines. With an overall and a hospitalization and death burden, the U.S. has a COVID-19 landscape very different from that in .
Additionally, some experts worried that an official message that the vaccinated should don masks unvaccinated individuals from seeking vaccines.
But as President Joe Biden put it on July 27, “� are behind the CDC’s change in masking recommendations.
Some locations are seeing further increase in community transmission, . New preliminary research yet to be peer reviewed suggests the delta variant is associated with a viral load in patients than seen with older strains. And early reports show that they can in turn spread to others.
The shifting recommendations don’t mean that the old ones were wrong, necessarily, only that conditions have changed. The bottom line? Masks do help cut down on coronavirus transmission, but it’s still vaccines that offer the best protection.
This is an updated version of an on July 22, 2021.
, Associate Dean for Regional Campuses,
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