Visitors to Times Square sit and enjoy the warm spring weather in New York City on March 25, 2021.
Roy Rochlin | Getty Images
Americans are having to get used to seeing people outside without a mask as more and more people are being vaccinated against Covid-19, White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Thursday.
Fauci reiterated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidelines that fully vaccinated people should not wear masks in public unless they are in a crowd.
“We have to make that transition,” Fauci said in an interview with CBS News after Anker Gayle King said people gave her “the side eye” when she takes off her mask outside even though she is fully vaccinated. “When you’re vaccinated and outside, put your mask aside, you don’t have to wear it.”
“When you get into a completely crowded situation where people are essentially falling on top of each other, wear a mask,” Fauci said.
How much outdoor transmission drives cases is debated among medical experts.
“The top-line result of all studies included in the systematic review is that less than 10% of cases are transmitted outdoors,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, beat up Walensky during the hearing, stating that the agency’s “contradicting, confusing guidance … has undermined public trust and contradicts the scientific guidance of many experts.”
A New York Times report cited epidemiologists that the CDC number is misleading and that the actual number of outdoor transmissions could be less than 0.1%.
Reports of new Covid-19 cases continued to decline in the US, averaging 36,700 new cases per day for the past week as of Wednesday. This is the lowest daily case average since September 14, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.
