Your 10 Biggest Questions About the CDC’s Updated Mask Guidelines, Answered by Doctors
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated its guidelines on wearing face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. For the first time, the agency offered different advice for people who are vaccinated against the virus compared to those who are not.
The biggest takeaway? Both unvaccinated and vaccinated people can take off their masks outdoors under certain circumstances, like while exercising outside with members of their own household and attending a small outdoors gathering with vaccinated family and friends. But vaccinated people can stay unmasked outdoors around unvaccinated people in small groups, and while eating outdoors with friends from different households.
Beyond that, the CDC issued a very detailed breakdown of when to mask up.
But there is a lot of nuance to the guidelines, and a lot of people are understandably confused. In fact, the CDC’s Twitter and Instagram posts were flooded with questions.
“They tried to emphasize in their guidance the new things that people who are vaccinated will be able to do in contrast to the people who aren’t vaccinated, but they got a little too much in the weeds,” says Timothy Murphy, M.D., senior associate dean for clinical and translational research at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine in New York.
Here, doctors offer their answers to some of the most common questions we found.
How long after you’ve been vaccinated does the new guidance apply?
The CDC’s guidance for vaccinated people focused specifically on those who are fully vaccinated. The agency defines this as meeting one of the following criteria:
It’s been two weeks after your second dose in a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
It’s been two weeks after you had a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.
Why did I get vaccinated if I still have to wear a mask?
This was a big one, and there are a few reasons why mask-wearing is still recommended for fully vaccinated people in certain situations. While the vaccines are extremely effective, they are not 100% effective, says William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “From the point of personal protection, that’s important,” he says.
While infections post-immunization, known as breakthrough cases, are rare and mild in terms of illness—they’re still possible. In the small chance you happen to become infected with the virus, you might then pass it on to others. (This is something researchers are still studying, by the way.)
Infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security also notes that it can be hard from an operational standpoint for businesses to determine who is and isn’t vaccinated—and therefore who should and shouldn’t be masked. “We’re not going to see that mask guidance change until enough of the population has been vaccinated,” he says.
Ok, so what percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated to stop wearing masks?
Experts aren’t entirely sure when we will reach herd immunity yet, since this is still a relatively new virus and an ongoing global health crisis. Dr. Schaffner estimates around 80% of the U.S. population will need to be vaccinated to make it safe for everyone to go without a mask, but he admits that will be really tough to achieve.
“It’s a percentage of adults vaccinated against a disease that we’ve never achieved in this country—yet,” he says. “It’s quite clear as we’re encountering hesitancy—people who say they will not get the vaccine—that it’s going to be hard to get there.”
Overall, the more people who get vaccinated, the faster we can return to some sense of normalcy. “The higher the percentage, the slower the disease will spread,” says Lewis Nelson, M.D., professor and chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and chief of service in the emergency department at University Hospital in New Jersey.
Why do fully vaccinated people still need to wear a mask in large crowds?
It’s largely due to concerns about coronavirus mutations, which have already spurred highly infectious variants. The more people the virus can infect, the more it is able to mutate—and possibly reduce the efficacy of the vaccines we have.
Plus, high levels of the virus are still circulating in many areas. “When you put 20,000 people in one spot for a concert, the virus is going to be there,” Dr. Murphy says.
Is it safe to use public bathrooms? Do you need to wear your mask in the stall?
Think of public bathrooms in the same way as you’d approach going into any indoor space, says Dr. Murphy. It’s considered safe as long as you wear your face mask. “You don’t know who’s coming in and out,” he says (and don’t forget to wash your hands with soap and water afterward, ideally for 20 seconds).
Do I still need to wear a mask at the grocery store?
The CDC guidance do not specifically address masking in grocery stores. However, it does say that people should mask up when they go to an “uncrowded, indoor shopping center,” implying that you should wear a mask at the grocery store, whether it’s busy or not—regardless of your vaccination status.
Is it OK to eat indoors at a restaurant if you’re vaccinated?
This one is tricky. The CDC recommends wearing masks while eating indoors or going to a bar, but you obviously can’t wear a mask while eating or drinking. Dr. Murphy says it’s likely safe to eat indoors at a restaurant if you’re fully vaccinated, especially if the restaurant has social distancing practices in place and other precautions, like non-touch menus and hand sanitizer requirements before entering. Just be sure to wear your mask when you’re not at your table—and now that the weather is getting nicer, outdoor dining is probably still your safest bet when possible.
We’re still wearing masks. So when can libraries open again?
Many libraries have stayed closed since the start of the pandemic, but experts say they should start opening up again soon. “If supermarkets and banks can open, I think we can safely open libraries,” Dr. Schaffner says. “You’re not going to get this virus from a book someone else had. I don’t think a single COVID infection has come from an inanimate object such as a book.” (Read more about what the CDC knows regarding surface transmission of the virus here. Spoiler: It’s rare.)
What precautions should you take if you have children?
If you have children, it’s important to remember that they’re not able to be vaccinated yet, Dr. Murphy says. That means you’ll still want to take precautions like having them wear a mask when they’re around people from outside your household and doing your best to keep them socially distanced from others.
“Children can get sick with COVID but the illness is nearly always mild,” Dr. Nelson says. “The biggest risk with children is that they can transmit COVID to others, so caution is needed when they are around older [or other high-risk] family members.”
When will I be able to stop wearing a mask?
It depends on your state. Some have already loosened mask-wearing regulations, Dr. Adalja points out. But if you want to make sure you’re being as safe as possible about it regardless of your local regulations, he says that it will likely take a drop in daily COVID-19 case counts to around 10,000 to 20,000 or less a day. “That will probably occur when about 40% or more of the general population is vaccinated,” he says. “We’re going that way.”
This article is accurate as of press time. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly evolves and the scientific community’s understanding of the novel coronavirus develops, some of the information may have changed since it was last updated. While we aim to keep all of our stories up to date, please visit online resources provided by the CDC, WHO, and your local public health department to stay informed on the latest news. Always talk to your doctor for professional medical advice.
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