In Israel, the mandate for outer masks was lifted over the weekend. And recent columns in Slate and The Atlantic ask if it’s time to do the same here in the US.
That’s how it is?
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Local health experts in the Bay Area are in conflict.
“No, no, absolutely not,” Dr. George Rutherford, UCSF infectious disease expert, told ABC7 News of the removal of the California outdoor mask mandate.
“Right now, when we actually still have a lot of people unvaccinated and still 2,500 cases a day in California, new cases per day in California, I think it would be wise to continue. “
Dr. Rutherford said he believed that even Israel, where more than 50% of the population is fully vaccinated, may have lifted their mandate prematurely. In California, 32% of people are fully vaccinated.
But Dr. Monica Gandhi, also an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, had a different perspective. She told ABC7 News that she thinks it is time to rethink the mandate for outdoor masking given the slow transmission speeds for remote activities.
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“There is a lot of data, especially over the past six months, showing us that the risk of transmission to the outside is very low,” said Dr. Gandhi. “In fact, there was a study from Ireland and a study from China looking that about 1 in 1,000 transmission occurs outdoors, as opposed to indoors, where we know there are more droplets and more transmission.”
“So in this setting of declining cases and confidence in the vaccine, I think it is time to lift the outer mask mandates,” she added.
Dr. Alok Patel, a medical officer for ABC7 News, said he does not believe the mask mandate should be completely lifted, but said he agrees it is time to re-evaluate it.
“At least add some transparency, and maybe a goal for people to say ‘hey, when we hit a certain number, go ahead and take off your mask when you’re out,’ because there’s a bit of an inconsistency,” said Dr. Patel.
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“You can go to an open-air restaurant, sit on a patio and possibly sit around eight other tables with people who don’t wear masks … but then you can be on the Embarcadero and still have to wear a mask.”
A spokesman for the California Department of Public Health did not say whether the state is considering lifting the mandate for the Outer Mask, but suggested that changes are unlikely to be made until at least the state’s reopening on June 15.
Dr. Rutherford believes this is for the best.
“I think if we blend in with the 60% of fully vaccinated people, we can think about it,” he said. “But we will have to see how things go in the coming months, with great pressure to reopen on June 15.”
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