Thanks, Robert. The first two interviews were especially germane, and the third quite interesting. These days, I view Dr. Fauci as the most trustworthy spokesperson on these subjects, so it’s good to hear his views – which are very encouraging.
If the pandemic has shown one things that there is a very high number of people who are absolutely not so socially responsible and it’s getting worse in the moment.
The new focus on individual choice undercuts a lot of the anti-mask paranoia and conspiracy theories.
No, it doesn’t address the issue of those who can’t get vaccinated yet. Nobody disputes that vaccinated people are not at significant risk from unmasked, non-vaccinated people. Your comment is rather irrelevant
You think the CDC should tell vaccinated people that we must keep wearing masks because some percentage of people who refuse to get vaccinated will abuse the honor system?
Which part of “nobody below 12 years can’t get a vaccination even if they want” don’t you understand. you are avoiding that point in any of your posts. I don’t care about people who don’t want to get vaccinated but I care, and apparently you could care less, about those who can’t get one.
How would you phrase a CDC recommendation that vaccinated people must keep wearing masks until children are vaccinated?
“For the average kid, Covid is a negligible risk,” Dr. Aaron Richterman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. … “For people under the age of 18, Covid is really not that big of a risk,” said Stephen Kissler, a researcher at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “I do think of it as on par with the risk from flu.”
As with adults, some children – not of their own volition but that of their parents or guardians – may never get vaccinated. And I agree: Surely the extant cohort of unvaccinated children shouldn’t prevent the entire already-vaccinated population, adults and other children, from un-masking.
But this brings up a related issue. It’s true that the mortal risk to an unvaccinated elementary-school age child is extremely small, but I haven’t heard that the risk from a child who has covid (howbeit mild) spreading the disease it to unvaccinated household members and other unvaccinated children is also small. It seems that unvaccinated children should be instructed to keep their masks on if the disease can propagate by them or through their friends and companions to unvaccinated adults – who are more vulnerable.
Perhaps at least by next year at this time, covid vaccinations will be required at all elementary and high schools, as they are going to be, for example, at public California universities for this fall. Currently school-age children have to have had vaccinations for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis-B, etc. to attend school in CA.
For example by still requiring everybody indoors wearing a mask. And as you can see from the link I had a few posts up so there are a significant number of deaths with children happening and there are concerns that the new variants are significantly more aggressive towards children - so from the data and comments from a number of other doctors I disagree with the thought from Richterman you posted.
Maybe small children should wear masks in school forever.
This year is so different! The kids are not sucking on their hair or putting classroom objects or thumbs in their mouths. Their mouths and noses are covered, so I’m (mostly) protected from their sneezes and coughs. I can see keeping up with masks. It is the safest I’ve ever felt in a classroom full of 5- and 6-year-olds.
How would the CDC justify that when the science says unmasked vaccinated people are not a significant threat? State and county governments are free to impose further restrictions: “We know a lot of unvaccinated people can’t be trusted to follow the honor system, so the rest of you all have to to keep wearing masks.”
Deaths among those under 18 have been similar to those from seasonal flu, so can’t reasonably justify restrictive public policies. To date no variants have come along to change that.
It would point to the main problem that you can distinguish between vaccinated and non-vaccinated without some kind of control at particular at some indoor location, e.g. restaurants, supermarkets etc. It is clear that a honor-system in the US doesn’t work.
It’s not the CDC’s job to determine whether the honor system works.
The honor system will work fine in places where most people have been responsible about wearing masks to date.
In other places, retail employees will no longer have to worry about being assaulted by mask deniers.
It’s pretty obvious we have very different opinions about a number of issues wrt the pandemic and the (public) response. I doubt we will come to any agreement.
“The honor system will work fine in places where most people have been responsible about wearing masks to date”
Disagree with you on this. There was social pressure for everyone to wear masks up until now.
Unvaccinated people will start seeing those around them not wearing them, and wont question who’s vaccinated and who’s not, so they too will stop wearing masks (for many reasons, i.e. societal pressure, discomfort of wearing them, can’t hear/speak clearly in stores, etc) and then endanger other unvaccinated people.
And one thing most vaccinated people underestimate so far is that non-vaccinated people are perfect “reaction vessels” for new virus mutations - it is just a matter of time, especially with the high number of people in the US not planning to get vaccinated, until we “create” a virus mutation which will evade our current vaccine.
I don’t know how far the comparison with other coronaviruses can be carried, but the most concerning type of influenza virus has something like 150 variations, and all of them mutate all the time (which is why a new flu shot is required every year). In at least 100 years of mutations, a version of influenza in the same league with covid-19 in terms of contagion and mortalities has not emerged. There has been no shortage of “reaction vessels” there either since only about 50% of the US population ever gets the annual flu shot. Covid-19 is already deadly, as are the current variants (and there will certainly be more), but there’s no reason to base our fully-vaccinated lives on the assumption that a more deadly breakthrough mutation might evolve from them.
Also, the point at which trying to control masking among the unvaccinated (other than through the “honor system”) can be completely discontinued will be when everyone who wants covid shots has been able to get them, including children of all ages. Beyond that point, only people in the sub-population that have chosen non-vaccination will be at risk, and they’ll only be spreading it to others like themselves.
In the meantime, people of all ages who do want to be vaccinated but haven’t been able to should continue to mask for their own safety. Their numbers should drop quickly over the next few months, although children under 12 may have to wait until the end of the year.
I think our differences of opinion are more about what’s politically possible rather than about the pandemic per se.
I guess this is pretty much what Newsom decided today.
Redo