As the highly contagious Delta variant continues to rampage the U.S., the Biden administration is considering whether to push Americans to return to standard mask-wearing, according to numerous White House sources who briefed the Washington Post.
While discussions are still preliminary, the West Wing is debating, at minimum, reforming its messaging around masks, sources claimed.
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Separately, decision-makers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are determining whether to mandate masks for everyone formally, said a separate source.
“At the White House, we follow the guidance and advice of health and medical experts,” assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz told the Post. “Public health guidance is made by the CDC.”
Vaccinations have slowed. About a half-million people were still being vaccinated daily, a 6% drop from last week. It’s a significant pitfall from the average 3 million people who got shots each day in late March and April.
With more than 40,000 new Covid infections reported daily, some experts say it’s time to hit the reset button and return to standard mask-wearing indoors.
“We are at a very different point in the pandemic than we were a month ago,” Dr. Leana Wen said on CNN Tuesday. “We should follow the example of L.A. County where they reinstated a mask mandate over the weekend, requiring masking indoors regardless of vaccination status.”
Los Angeles County mandated mask-wearing indoors for everyone - vaccinated or unvaccinated - on Sunday.
More than 91 million people reside in regions experiencing high Covid-19 transmission, the CDC said. Only 48.8% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to the CDC’s Covid data tracker.
People infected with the delta variant of the virus have a viral load that is around 1,000 times higher than the initial strains of the virus from 2020. Scientists say that suggests the virus replicates much faster, making it exceedingly more infectious.
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