As the United States starts to open back up and state and local governments start to ease restrictions, the economy getting on track for a full recovery. This will take time. Many questions still loom in the air. One of them is should I wear a mask still if I had been vaccinated or not? If I take my mask off in public, how do I know if the person next to me has been vaccinated or not?
Are there restrictions announced by President Biden this past week too lax?
The CDC issued the latest updated guidance even though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) emergency temporary standard mandated by President Biden’s Jan. 21 executive order has been delayed for two months. The National Nurses United (NNU) believes the lack of protection is still a danger to nurses and other essential workers would face on the job. The CDC guidance said that people no longer need to isolate after exposure or get tested unless they develop symptoms.
The CDC issued new guidance to ease restrictions about mask wearing for those who have received the vaccine for the coronavirus. However, the President did believe masks still should be born in large crowds at larger gatherings.
NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN said, “This newest CDC guidance is not based on science, does not protect public health, and threatens the lives of patients, nurses, and other frontline workers across the country,”. “Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century.”
The NNU is no longer tracking data necessary to understand whether vaccines prevent asymptomatic/mild infections, how long vaccine protection may last, and to understand how variants impact vaccine protection,” the union said in its statement.
The CDC’s new guidelines area listed below:
If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic. Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. Source: CDC.gov
The CDC also said that they will not be tracking people that have received the vaccine anymore unless they have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and died. The NNU has said that the CDC has not fully recognized the science about aerial transmission and needs to update its covid guidance.
The National Nurses United (NNU) reported OSHA needs to issue a Covid ETS immediately, or we will see more deaths due to COVID-19.
All of our protective measures should remain in place, in addition to vaccines. This pandemic is not over,” said NNU President Deborah Burger, RN. “Nurses follow the precautionary principle, which means that until we know for sure something is safe, we use the highest level of protections, not the lowest. The CDC is putting lives at risk with this latest guidance.”
There is also the risk of the circulation of Covid variants that could be more transmissible, deadlier, and may already be or may become vaccine resistant reports the Nurses United (NNU)
