“MASKS, Masks, Masks.” Indeed these face coverings seem to have just become part of our lives now and I honestly think children growing up nowadays don’t really know what it was like to live around people wearing nothing but their “real faces,” that is if ladies’ make up also counts as part of the equation.
Masks still remain a great physical barrier against Covid-19. In some countries like Malawi. I am told people are jailed for not wearing masks, cases are on the rise now on our eastern neighbour.
Not so long ago, the USA CDC (Centre for Diseases Control) had eased its recommendations on masks vis-à-vis vaccinated Americans but has recently revisited the recommendation.
And I got a lot of people like Susan asking and others discussing this on social media especially in view of vaccine efficacy and significance.
So I thought we could briefly look at this today. Much of the source will be CDC documents and American news stations – CBSN and CNBC.
EARLIER CDC RECOMMENDATION FROM MAY 2021
“In a striking move to send the country back toward pre-pandemic life, the CDC on Thursday moved to ease indoor mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks inside most places.
The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but will help clear the way for reopening workplaces, schools, and other venues – even removing the need for masks or social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated.” – CBSN May 13, 2021.
This decision was made then based on the findings of available data at the moment. However after reviewing the latest data especially after the Delta variant became the dominant variant, CDC has since revisited the earlier mask recommendation and has seemingly reversed it. Here are the new guidelines:
CBSN REPORTS JULY 27, 2021: “This pandemic continues to pose a serious threat to the health of all Americans,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on a call. “Today, we have new science related to the delta variant that requires us to update the guidance regarding what you can do when you are fully vaccinated.”
The updated guidance comes ahead of the fall season, when the highly contagious delta variant is expected to cause another surge in new corona virus cases and many large employers plan to bring workers back to the office.
“In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the delta variant, and protect others. this includes schools,” Walensky said. The CDC recommends that everyone in grade schools wear masks indoors, “including teachers, staff, students and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.”
THE NEW DATA
The recommendation came after a CDC study recently in July 2021 published showed 74 percent of people infected in Massachusetts Covid outbreak were fully vaccinated
CNBS REPORTS: “About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with four of them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published by the CDC.
The new data, published in the U.S. agency’s morbidity and mortality weekly report, also found that fully vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as unvaccinated people, and could spread it to other individuals.
“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
“The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones.”
While the delta variant continues to hit unvaccinated people the hardest, some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and are potentially transmitting it to others, Walensky told reporters.
She added that the variant behaves “uniquely differently from past strains of the virus.”
A CDC document that was reviewed by CNBC warned that the delta variant sweeping across the country is as contagious as chickenpox, has a longer transmission window than the original Covid strain and may make older people sicker, even if they’ve been fully vaccinated.
The Delta variant, now in at least 132 countries and already the dominant form of the disease in the United States, is more transmissible than the common cold, the 1918 Spanish flu, Smallpox, Ebola, MERS and SARS, according to the document. Only Measles appears to spread faster than the variant.
“The data published on Friday was based on 469 cases of Covid associated with multiple summer events and large public gatherings held in July in Barnstable county, Massachusetts, which encompasses Cape Cod and is just outside Martha’s vineyard.
The events were held in Provincetown, according to NBC News. Approximately three-quarters, or 74 percent of the cases occurred in fully vaccinated people who had completed a two-dose course of the mRNA vaccines or received a single shot of Johnson & Johnson’s” CNBC JULY 27 2021.
This latest development leaves the USA in a debate on whether to make masks mandatory or not, although some states had already started doing that especially after seeing the surge in cases recently due to the Delta variant.
IT IS A LEARNING PROCESS
Especially now that Covid-19 is slowly fading away from people’s minds in Zambia, this is the best time to keep reminding one another of how serious a threat it still is. The Ministry of Health has already warned that we might have the fourth wave late this year. Since to be “forewarned is to be forearmed,” this simply means we can win this fight even before it begins.
And as information is revised so are different updates made, so will recommendations be adjusted. We are still in the infancy of this pandemic, vaccines are still to be fully analysed. But what has been shown is that the yes vaccinated may get infected with Covid-19 but will be protected from severe form of the disease.
If advanced countries like the USA can recommend going back to masking up indoors for the vaccinated, then i wonder what this should tell us. But i will repeat let us invest in local research, research, research, research. It is a learning process for all of us.
Please, please let us keep masking up whether vaccinated or not. Prevention is better than cure. After tomorrow, Zambia goes to the polls to chose our leaders for the next five years, may we choose wisely and may God’s will be done for this beautiful peaceful country. One Zambia, One Nation, One love.
UNTIL THEN, ALUTA CONTINUA.
