Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed mask recommendations for anyone in the U.S. living in an area with medium to low risk of COVID. That means, up to 70 percent of people across the country can stop wearing masks. Maybe for you, the news was a welcome announcement. You’re vaccinated, boosted and ready to get back to “normal” life. But if you’re considered high-risk for COVID or have loved ones who are high-risk, mask mandate lifts may make you feel anxious. After two years of living in fear, COVID anxiety is hard to shake. Is living in a mask-free world truly safe for you and them? According to infectious disease doctors, the answer isn’t as black-and-white as we may want it to be. “Life is more complicated than that,” says Dr. William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “Not all parts of the country are moving at the same pace.” Dr. Schaffner adds that it’s also important to consider your own individual health risks, as well as the risks of those around you. When it comes to deciding whether or not to ditch your face masks for good, infectious disease doctors say there are important factors to keep in mind.
Why are mask mandates being lifted?
When it comes to assessing your individual risk—and how that plays into your decision to stash away your masks or not—it’s helpful to know why mask mandates are being lifted in the first place. Is the pandemic officially over? According toDr. Raed Dweik, MD, a pulmonologist, critical care specialist, and chair of the Respiratory Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, not quite. “Nobody is committing to saying the pandemic is ‘over’ but we do seem to be moving from COVID being pandemic to endemic,” he says. Dr. Dweik explains that this means that COVID is becoming something we will all live with, similar to how we live with the flu. “That is where we are heading although when we actually get there is something that’s determined in hindsight,” he says. “Nobody knows exactly when that transition will happen until it already does.” So why are mask mandates being lifted if the pandemic isn’t officially “over”? Dr. Dweik says that thanks to the development of the vaccines and boosters, we’re collectively better able to protect ourselves—and hospitalizations and deaths caused by COVID have significantly gone down as a result. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we weren’t able to protect ourselves and hospitals were overwhelmed,” Dr. Dweik says. But now, in most parts of the country, this is no longer the case. Dr. Dweik says that the last weekend in February was the first time since March 2020 that the Cleveland Clinic intensive care unit had zero COVID patients. (They now have a few.) This, he says, is thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccines and boosters. Dr. Stephen Parodi, MD, a national infectious disease leader at Kaiser Permanente, says another reason mask mandates are being lifted in many places is because so many people have had COVID already, in part due to Omicron. “We do know that there’s an amount of natural immunity after you’ve had an infection,” he says. “So now, there are a large amount of people who have some form of immunity, either from the vaccines, from [getting COVID], or both.” While all this has contributed to many mask mandates being lifted, Dr. Schaffner says that one-third of the country is still considered high-risk for COVID. “In some parts of the country, COVID cases are still pretty high,” he says. Even for those who aren’t in a high-risk COVID zone, Dr. Schaffner says it’s still important to be mindful of the virus. “COVID becoming endemic means that the virus will still be among us, continuing to smolder and continuing to be transmitted. This means it will still be causing infectious and hospitalizations, but at much lower, ‘tolerable’ levels,” he says.
Who should still be wearing a mask—and who can ditch their masks for good
With all that in mind, the experts say this means some people may still want to consider wearing a mask—even as mandates become more lax. If you’ve been vaccinated and boosted, Dr. Dweik says it’s safe to go mask-free outside (unless you’re at a crowded event). But if you have underlying health issues or are over age 65—or are frequently around people who have underlying health issues or are older than 65—the experts say you may want to consider continuing to wear a mask. “It’s important to think about why we wear a mask in the first place, which is to protect ourselves or those who are more vulnerable because they are either unvaccinated or have immune system problems,” Dr. Dweik says. “If someone is more vulnerable, it makes sense to continue to wear a mask around them.” Dr. Parodi says that parents who have children under five may also choose to continue to wear a mask since kids under five have not yet been approved to be vaccinated. Dr. Schaffner adds that if you are in a high-risk area (which you can check on the CDC’s website), mask-wearing is still recommended. Yes, you may be tired of COVID and eager to get back to “normal,” but if your county is still high-risk, Dr. Schaffner says that means the COVID transmission rate is still high. Many schools are lifting their mask mandates as well, leaving parents to decide if their kids can now head into the classroom with their faces fully exposed. The doctors say that this again comes down to individual risk factors and it’s also a deeply personal decision for families to make together. “Fortunately, kids [generally] don’t get as sick [from COVID] as adults do; that’s the good news,” Dr. Dweik says, adding that it can also be hard to get kids to keep their mask on. But again, children have different individual risks. Some kids may have a compromised immune system themself or live with someone who does. “When it comes to mask-wearing in schools, I plead for understanding and acceptance,” Dr. Schaffner says. “No one should be made fun of for wearing a mask.” Dr. Parodi says that schools can also do their part by continuing to disinfect classroom items as best they can. “This will help protect not only against COVID, but other viruses too,” he says. Dr. Parodi emphasizes that while masks are helpful in protecting against COVID, getting vaccinated and boosted should be the first line of defense. “If you haven’t gotten the vaccine, please talk to your health care provider and revisit that decision,” he says, adding that it can also be helpful to talk to people who have been vaccinated for their perspective. “It’s important to keep that dialogue open and discuss the underlying reasons for hesitancy,” he says. What Dr. Dweik says he hopes most people will keep in mind is that when it comes to COVID safety, there are different layers of protection—similar to clothing layers protecting you from the cold. “If it’s cold out, you don’t want to go out naked; you want different layers to keep you warm,” he says. It’s the same with the virus. Dr. Dweik says that the vaccines and boosters offer the most protection; the “warmest” layers, so to speak. Social distancing and mask-wearing offer extra layers of protection. “Think of these layers based on the severity of cases in your area and likelihood of becoming infected,” he says. What you don’t want to do is to go mask-free while being unvaccinated, especially if you live in a county that’s considered high-risk. That would be like braving a snowstorm in your underwear and the advice would be the same: Cover up. Next up, familiarize yourself with what COVID symptoms look like if you’ve been vaccinated.
Sources:
Dr. William Schaffner, MD, infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University School of MedicineDr. Raed Dweik, pulmonologist, critical care specialist, and chair of the Respiratory Institute at the Cleveland ClinicDr. Stephen Parodi, MD, national infectious disease leader at Kaiser Permanente
