Exactly When to Mask Up Under the CDC's Newest Guidelines
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Masking has become a semi-normal part of life over the past two-plus years, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just revealed new guidance that suggests many people don't need to mask up much anymore for COVID-19 and the Omicron variant.
Under the new guidance, the CDC uses “community level” metrics to help people see what the level of COVID-19 is in their area and how it should influence their decision to mask up or not when they go out in public. The guidance also shows that the majority of Americans live in areas where people who are healthy don’t need to wear masks indoors.
“This framework moves beyond looking just at cases and test positivity to evaluate factors that reflect severity of disease, including hospitalizations and hospital capacity,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., wrote on Twitter.“It is important to remember that people may choose to mask at any time. We should all support and encourage efforts that protect those at high risk. We all have a responsibility to protect those among us most at risk from #COVID19 & keep them safe.”
https://twitter.com/CDCDirector/status/1497315650179674115
The new guidance does involve a little legwork on your end to see what’s happening in your community before making the decision to mask up or not. Here’s what you need to know.
What does the new CDC masking guidance say, exactly?
The guidance stops short of saying everyone can ditch their masks. Instead, it offers up a more tailored approach based on where you live and what’s currently happening in your area.
To use it, you’ll visit the CDC’s website and enter in your state and county. From there, you’ll be informed whether the COVID-19 transmission in your community is low, medium, or high. Here’s a breakdown of what each means, per the CDC:
Low. You should wear a mask “based on your personal preference, informed by your personal level of risk,” the CDC says.
Medium. If you’re immunocompromised or at a high risk for severe illness from COVID-19, the CDC recommends talking to your healthcare provider about wearing a mask indoors in public settings. And, if you live with or have social contact with someone who is considered high risk for severe illness from COVID-19, the CDC recommends considering testing yourself for infection before you see that person and wearing a mask when you’re indoors with them.
High. The CDC advises wearing a well-fitting mask indoors in public, regardless of your vaccination status or individual risk.
Where’s the new CDC mask guidance map?
You can look at a map of the entire country and its risk on the CDC’s website. You can also search there for your COVID-19 community level based on your state and country.
William Schaffner, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, says that the updated guidance shows that “we are continuing on this transition from pandemic to endemic.”
“Cases are going down, hospitalizations are dropping around the country and the CDC is responding to that,” he adds.
“When it comes to public health guidance from the CDC, it is really important for it to be tied to metrics that are meaningful,” says infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “If almost the entire country has significant and high levels of spread, but very different conditions inside hospitals, then the metric of exclusively using cases is not warranted when it comes to guidance.”
But Dr. Schaffner says that the CDC has also “made things a little more complicated” with the latest guidance. “They violated the KISS rule—Keep It Simple, Stupid,” he says. “It should have been one way or the other.”
So, when should you still mask up?
It depends. If your area is having a high level of community spread, you should be masking up indoors, Dr. Schaffner says. But things get slightly confusing when you’re at a medium level of spread.
While people are encouraged to reach out to their healthcare provider if they’re immunocompromised or at high risk for severe COVID at this level, Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York, points out that very few people will actually do this.
So, who should mask up here? “If you’re unvaccinated, if you’re 50 and older, you’re pregnant, or you have significant underlying disease, it would be prudent to mask up,” Dr. Russo says. The CDC has a full list of people who are considered to be at higher-than-usual risk for severe complications from COVID-19, including those with diabetes, heart conditions, lung conditions, and overweight and obesity—Dr. Russo recommends checking the list to see if you fall under the high risk criteria.
But Dr. Russo points out that there’s “still some uncertainty” with the guidance if you’re healthy but you have an unvaccinated child or family member who is high risk. He recommends that parents of unvaccinated children continue to mask up and to have their children wear masks when COVID spread in the community is at a medium level, just to be safe.
“If I had a child in the medium zone, even if they were healthy, I would probably have them mask up to try to protect them from being infected to minimize potential consequences of long COVID,” Dr. Russo says.
But Dr. Schaffner says that a lot of this will come down to individual risk assessment. “Some people may elect to continue to wear their masks no matter what zone they’re in,” he says. “I make a plea for tolerance so that people don’t give those folks a hard time. Who knows what their health issues are? They have made the decision that they’re at high risk and that should be enough.”
Dr. Schaffner says he hopes that cases will continue to decline across the country, even as less people wear masks. “We may have a transient bump here or there, but I hope that the general trend downward will continue,” he says.
This article is accurate as of press time. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly evolves and the scientific community’s understanding of the novel coronavirus develops, some of the information may have changed since it was last updated. While we aim to keep all of our stories up to date, please visit online resources provided by the CDC, WHO, and your local public health department to stay informed on the latest news. Always talk to your doctor for professional medical advice.
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