New Mask Mandate Causes Mass Confusion

The CDC’s new mask mandate is not only causing mass confusion, but it’s actually making some Americans fighting mad!

Current Events
Last week, the CDC delivered an unexpected surprise by issuing yet another new mask mandate.  This time, CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told Americans they may finally take off their dreaded masks — provided they’re fully vaccinated… and around others who are also fully vaccinated… and not on an airplane or other mode of commercial transportation… and not inside a business or government office that still requires them.

Confused yet??  Well, that’s nothing.

Do you remember at the very beginning of the pandemic when the CDC told everyone to NOT wear a mask?  Then, they told us to wear a mask.  Then, they said we should probably double it up and wear 2 masks.  Now, they’re telling us once again to take off our masks (after getting both shots) but to keep them on under certain circumstances.

Um… Wow!

Not only did the CDC not give The White House, the states, schools, and even parents ample warning that they were issuing this new mask mandate, but their announcement appears to have caused more harm than good.

When the new mask mandate told Americans they may now remove their masks indoors and outdoors provided they’ve been fully vaccinated, most Americans only heard the first part and ignored the “provided they’ve been fully vaccinated” part.  Now, everyone is walking the streets and showing up at stores and restaurants without wearing a mask — but arguing that the CDC said they don’t have to wear them anymore.

WRONG!

Unless you live in Florida or Texas (where the governors have long since adopted an ‘anything goes’ mentality), the new mask mandate is not a sudden free-for-all to throw away your masks and immediately go back to life pre-March of 2020.  On the contrary.  The mandate was based on very specific (and confusing) scientific data that vaccinations have made it possible to return to some sense of normalcy.  And the keyword here is “SOME.”

Certain stores, restaurants, schools, places of employment, and more are still requiring masks.  Why?  Because they don’t have a rapid (or legal) way to determine who is and who isn’t vaccinated.  So, when a person walks into a grocery store without a mask, the checkout clerk has no way of knowing if that person has received the vaccine or not.  And remember, although the vaccines have a high efficacy rate of 95%, there is still a 5% chance of transmitting or contracting the virus.

Now, arguments and fights are breaking out because no one knows if the maskless person standing only inches from them has been fully vaccinated or not.

“We spent a year trying very hard to get people to wear masks,” said Matthew Seeger, a health and risk communication scholar at Wayne State University. “This kind of sudden, abrupt change, without any kind of signaling that it’s coming [has left] people feeling blindsided.”

1/ Covid @UCSF Chronicles, Day 426

I’ve been letting the new CDC guidelines marinate for a few days, getting over the shock of seeing an agency that’s usually a trailing indicator so “out there.” I tried, but I can’t talk myself out of seeing the new recs as too far, too fast.

— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) May 18, 2021

The confusion has now prompted some Americans to tune out the CDC, or to skip getting the vaccine altogether.

“When you have a source that gives you conflicting information or that changes guidance over time, it makes it more difficult for you to be relied upon as a trustworthy source,” said health communication expert Elisia Cohen of the University of Minnesota. “People say, ‘I have trouble keeping the story straight.’ The real concern is that rather than going to their doctor to resolve the confusion, people might just tune out health advice altogether.”

Regrettably, the general public simply doesn’t understand changes in public health advisories or how they work. They also don’t appear to be erring on the side of caution. Instead, they only want these damn masks gone and their old lives back.

So, thanks, CDC, for making this much harder and more confusing than it ever needed to be. I, for one, will be keeping my mask ON until I feel confirmation within my soul that it’s perfectly safe to do otherwise.

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
The new mask mandate is uber confusing.