CDC changes recommendations on when to wear masks in public

Judy Woodruff:

As we reported, the CDC has now changed its recommendations about when and where Americans should be wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus.

William Brangham looks into the details.

William Brangham:

Judy, instead of using just case counts, the CDC's mask guidance will now be based on local cases, hospital capacity, and rates of severe disease.

Based on those metrics, communities will be rated low, medium, or high risk. Universal masking, including in schools, will be recommended only in high-risk counties. The CDC emphasized that anyone with symptoms or known COVID exposures should still wear a mask, and especially the immunocompromised and medically vulnerable.

I'm joined now by epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Jennifer Nuzzo, great to have you back on the "NewsHour."

I want to ask you about the CDC guidance. The CDC is now saying that 70 percent of Americans live in counties where the risk is so low that they don't need to wear a mask indoors.

What do you make of that?

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: Well, I think what we are hearing from the CDC is not that they have loosened their recommendations, but they have actually changed how they calculate who is at risk. They are using new data.

And that's reflective, I think, of a few important changes. One, the virus is not the same. We had a huge surge of cases. And that was incredibly challenging. But, fortunately, the percentage of those cases that went to the hospital was much lower, so it is a different virus than we have had to deal with at earlier points in the pandemic.

The other change that changed is that the data we use to track the virus have changed. And with the increasing use of home test, metrics like case numbers and test positivity was what the CDC exclusively used to rely on to make those risk maps, are no longer as reliable or as meaningful.

So what they have done now is brought in other data sets to construct those risk maps. And I, frankly, think it is a more of an accurate reflection of what is going on, on the community level.

William Brangham:

I know there are a lot of places that really do rely on the CDC's guidance on how to make decisions about their own places.

But do you think, in the end, that this will, two years — plus years into this pandemic, that this will meaningfully change people's behavior?

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo:

Yes, I think the place that it's probably likely to have the most impact is probably for employers, who look to official guidance to set company workplace policies, and also likely schools that very much want sort of an official metric to use in order to make decisions about what mitigation measures they should use.

But, for the average person, I personally have never met somebody who has looked at the CDC map to decide whether or not a mask is required. Certainly, I think they go by what their local governments tell them to do, and then just what their personal risk tolerance is, above all.

William Brangham:

In this discussion about the changing guidance, you have referenced two particular examples, Texas, which dropped its mask mandates and did not see a huge surge, and Hong Kong, which has very high levels of masking and is still experiencing a very severe Omicron surge.

Put those two examples into context for us.

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo:

Yes, I mean, the takeaway from those two examples is that what impact changing mask policies will have is really complicated, and we shouldn't automatically assume one way or the other is going to happen, that we will have a huge surge of cases or that we won't.

I don't want anybody to take from those two examples that lifting mask mandates spared Texas and that having masks condemned Hong Kong to having a surge, just to say that, sometimes, when you lift a mask mandate or mask guidance, people may continue to wear masks regardless. So, we don't really know what the impact of this changing guidance is going to be.

Obviously, it's something we have to look for. And if we see that it has done harm, that there is a rise in cases again, then, of course, we have to change our approach. And I think that's something that the CDC director said today quite clearly, is that this is very much a dynamic situation. We're going to continue to look at the data. We're going to continue to assess.

I think some people have argued that changing masking guidance right now may make it harder to put masking back into place when it's needed. I'm not sure I agree with that. I think people tend to look around at what's happening, and if they don't see real risks in their communities, they're going to adjust their behavior regardless.

William Brangham:

What do you make of the criticism that's been leveled about this, that this puts immunocompromised people and kids who have not yet been able to receive a vaccine at real risk, and that this is more about politics, rather than public health?

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo:

Well, I don't think it's about politics. I do think it is about public health and recognizing the limitations of our previous approaches and trying to update them with changes in the data that we have.

But what I do think is that we, as individual humans, have to continue to care for our neighbors and classmates and co-workers. And, certainly, decisions about wearing masks aren't just about individual protections, but also thinking about what it may do to others.

So I just encourage people to inquire if people that you're around are comfortable without your wearing a mask, or if they would prefer that you wear one. That's one of the reasons why I choose to continue to wear a mask when I go into indoor environments, despite the fact that I live in an area where masking isn't required, because I don't know who's around me. And I want to be mindful of the fact that I could be potentially exposing somebody.

William Brangham:

All right, Jennifer Nuzzo of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, thank you very much for being here.

Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo:

Thanks so much for having me.