{"id":48808,"date":"2021-05-18T12:41:22","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=48808"},"modified":"2021-05-18T12:41:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:41:35","slug":"fauci-mask-mandates-by-businesses-are-creating-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/05\/fauci-mask-mandates-by-businesses-are-creating-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Fauci: mask mandates by businesses are creating confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged Tuesday that mask mandates by businesses are creating confusion in the wake of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s announcement last week that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear face coverings in most settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

However, Fauci, the federal government\u2019s top infectious disease expert and President Joe Biden\u2019s chief medical adviser, said it is \u201cperfectly reasonable and understandable\u201d for businesses to continue to require masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe problem and the issue is that we don’t have any way of knowing who is vaccinated and who’s not vaccinated,\u201d Fauci said in an interview with ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America<\/a>.\u201d \u201cAnd I think that’s where the confusion arises because there are some establishments who are saying: \u2018Well, I’m going to have people coming into my establishment or store or what have you. Some are going to be vaccinated and some are not. I’m not going to know the difference. Some might be infected and might actually have a risk of infecting someone else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Monday morning, 37.3% of Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to CDC data<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, the CDC announced it was easing its guidance for fully vaccinated people<\/a>, saying it was no longer necessary to wear masks indoors or outdoors in most settings or socially distance. Exceptions where masks should still be worn include on public transportation, at hospitals, at prisons and at homeless shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major retail chains such as Walmart, Target, Trader Joe\u2019s and Starbucks have dropped their mask requirements<\/a> for fully vaccinated customers except in areas where local and state laws still require face coverings. But other companies such as Home Depot, Apple, Whole Foods and Macy\u2019s are still requiring masks for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All but eight states are in line with the CDC\u2019s new guidance \u2014 and five of those holdouts have announced plans to end mask mandates for vaccinated people this month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked by ABC\u2019s George Stephanopoulos if the CDC believes that \u201cwhichever choice the state makes is fine,\u201d Fauci answered, \u201cNot really.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the science that evolved over the last few weeks that prompted the CDC to make the recommendations that people who were vaccinated should feel safe and be able to go indoors and outdoors without wearing a mask relates to the evidence of how effective these vaccines are not only in protecting you against infection but, even if you have a breakthrough infection, the chances of you of transmitting it to someone else is extremely low,\u201d Fauci said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged Tuesday that mask mandates by businesses are creating confusion in the wake of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s announcement last week that fully vaccinated… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":48809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[296],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48810,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48808\/revisions\/48810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}