Biden admin. officials and top aides are speaking about whether they should push for vaccinated Americans to start using masks as an added safety measure, The Washington Post is saying.
As the delta variant seems to spread, officials are now discussing if they should urge for new mask guidelines, six people close to the discussions told the news outlet. Some of the talks include people from the CDC who are separately looking at whether to change their masking guidance or not.
White House aides and officials had said that any new guidance about masks would come from the CDC. They insist that the White House takes steps to guarantee there is no interfering with the work of scientists.
“At the White House, we go along with the guidance and advice of doctors and experts,” said Kevin Munoz, press secretary. “Public health recommendations are given by the CDC, and they are recommending that completely vaccinated people do not wear a mask. If you have not gotten your vaccine, you should wear a mask.”
But two sources inform the Post that one idea that is being spoken about in some of the discussions would be to ask people to wear a mask when vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans mix in public areas.
Word of the discussions came as former Trump White House Surgeon General Jerome Adams gave a mea culpa on urging against masks at the beginning of the pandemic, and also warned that the CDC acted too quickly under the Biden administration to remove mask recommendations.
Adams says the CDC must reverse its lifting of its mask guidelines sooner instead of later, tweeting:
“Now you have health leaders and possibly states giving guidance in direct conflict with the mask guidance given out a month ago. The sooner CDC reverses this, the better.”
And the Post also stressed that the new discussions of mask recommendations are happening as we are seeing over 40,000 new cases of covid per day, while the rate of vaccination keeps slowing.
A return to more masking would be a hit to President Biden’s efforts to push Americans to think that the virus is retreating, according to the Post.
Success against coronavirus is a message that Biden wants to use in the 2022 midterms to help Democrats keep control of the Senate and House, the newspaper said.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
