The CDC announced Tuesday that small groups of fully vaccinated people can congregate outside unmasked. The left continued to extol the virtues (mostly social) of wearing masks while the right called it an acknowledgement of what has already been happening.
Summary
The Centers for Disease Control revised their recommended guidelines for wearing masks outdoors on Tuesday, saying fully vaccinated people do not have to wear one in most situations.
- CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who has recently made statements that forced the Biden administration to correct the record, said during a press conference that small groups of fully vaccinated people outside can congregate without masks.
- Axios reports the new guidance “changes little in practical terms” but that the goal is to nudge those hesitant to receive the vaccine towards getting vaccinated as a show of “where we could go if we’re able to get everyone on board and vaccinated.”
- President Biden said “stunning progress” in getting Americans vaccinated and the number of coronavirus cases dropping helped the CDC revise its recommendations.
- The CDC’s announcement comes on the same day the agency says more than 232 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine has been administered in the United States.
- Unable to give up the role of doomsayer, CNN’s reporting of the new mask guidance emphasized “life will not completely return to normal for fully vaccinated people.”
- The New York Times was more circumspect and slyly, if unintentionally critical of Biden, noting his theatrics of wearing a mask outdoors approaching the event but not wearing one afterwards.
- Vox joined CNN in chiding readers to continue wearing masks, dominating their coverage with how and why one must still wear a mask outdoors.
- RedState noted about the consistent inconsistency of the White House’s mask messaging, singling out press secretary Jen Psaki for not wearing a mask indoors while saying the White House will continue to adhere to CDC guidelines for indoor workplaces.
- The Daily Caller has several reports on incoherent messaging, mainstream media hosts extolling the virtues of multiple masks while running outdoors (which allegedly caused one teen to collapse during a high school track meet), and criticism from former Trump officials who contend the CDC’s guidance is based on politics rather than science.
- Commentary Magazine’s Noah Rothman hits the nail on the head, saying the CDC’s announcement was not based on science per se, but that its hand was forced by the liberal intelligentsia quietly acknowledging what the rest of the country already understood and giving the bureaucracy its blessing to loosen restrictions on outdoor mask mandates.
Author’s Note:
Proclamations such as Tuesday’s would have had far greater impact had public health officials not spent several months telling Americans they still need to wear a mask all the time even after being vaccinated.)
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
