CDC Checkmates the Mask

You’re confused. I know it. I can tell. Masks weren’t a good idea at one point, a long long time ago. That was before over half a million dead, before school closings, restaurant shuttering’s and a society coming to a grinding halt. Then, masks were okay. Masks were required—demanded even. One could get arrested for not wearing one in certain circumstances. People turned the mask into a personal style statement. Gone were the drab blue and white hospital grade masks. Enter: smiling faces and flags, bandanas and gators. They came in all sizes and all shapes with adjustable straps and some strapless. I chose not to stand next to those. And of course, how could we forget that there were some who refused the mask. The deniers of Covid or believers of invincibility. These mask deniers fought for the right not to wear one. They congregated in ways that made them ineffective, even if they were wearing them. They encouraged crowds with just a sprinkling of mask wearers among them as if seasoning with just a little salt was all one needed to preserve the lot of them. It didn’t work. You rarely heard of the consequences on national news but if you searched around the internet you found the stories of people who were devout abhorrers of the mask that contracted Covid and died—politicians included. The loved ones asked the public to respect the dead. Some did not. The irony was too rich and they chose posthumous criticism to make the point that trusting the CDC is sacred.

Then came the vaccine. If you were a devout mask wearer you were a vaccine believer, be damned the fake news about limbs falling off. Of course, if you were a mask denier you were an antivaxxer. That came as no surprise to most. I noticed some deniers of the mask gradually lean toward the vaccine but they did it in the quiet of night when all of their cohorts were fast asleep. I have no proof but I wouldn’t be surprised if in many parts of America, people got vaccinated but told their friends they hadn’t and had no intention to. Make of it what you will. Among my physician colleagues I know of four who contracted Covid. One was before the vaccine and was a victim of service to the hospital. They got vaccinated three months later. Two had a vaccine option but chose not to, they got sick, had to stop work and had lingering post-Covid symptoms affecting their life in ways they wish it hadn’t. The fourth one died not too long ago, well after Covid shots were like buying chewing gum at CVS. I don’t know if the two that got Covid and had lingering symptoms will choose to get the vaccine. One told me he has no intention to. He believes in his immune system. He’s a smart guy and it’s hard not to find logic in his reasoning. The CDC gods think differently. What is fair to say is that the CDC makes guidelines out of an abundance of caution since their advice must apply to the young and the old, the spry and the infirm, the immune and the immune compromised. Guidelines may start from educated guesses but when proven science can point the way, the CDC has diverged from its current path without hesitation. They’ve taken some heat for this but it’s simply the difference between the logic of the scientific community and the relative ignorance of the community at large. Science often turns on a dime. When it does it is backed by hard research evidence and all in the scientific community turns with them. We’re used to treating someone on Monday differently than how we did on Friday, all due to new evidence. We just keep moving forward, all the while gradually getting better at what we do.

So, when the vaccine first became available we were told to still wear the mask. People were disgruntled. Getting the vaccine should have meant the doldrums of quarantine were over. The CDC said Not so fast. The research at the time showed a five percent chance of contracting Covid even with the vaccine. Those odds are pretty good but the CDC was concerned, not about the vaccinated individual who lost the five percent bet with fate, they were concerned with the public-at-large who overall, were still not vaccinated. Yes, there were people that wanted the vaccine but were still waiting for the rollout to get to their Tier. The CDC was concerned about these at-risk individuals. Could the five percent failure of the Pfizer and Modern vaccine result in real symptoms or an asymptomatic infection? Would either of these result in serious viral loads making transmission to others likely or possible? The CDC knew that the vaccinated individual was not going to die or get seriously ill but they didn’t know if they were still contagious enough to get others ill. So, we continued to wear the mask.

Fast-forward to now. Two things have emerged. First, the vaccine is chewing gum; you can get it whenever and wherever you want. In fact, if you haven’t gotten the vaccine at this point, May 2021, it’s because you’ve chosen not to get it. That is a state of mind the CDC can do nothing about and doesn’t intend to worry itself with. If you fall in this category, the CDC says It’s on you. The second reality is the CDC revealed the latest studies show vaccinated asymptomatic infections have very low viral loads making transmission to others nearly impossible. The CDC bit the bullet and decided now was the time to release the masses from the doldrums of quarantine. This was the logic missed in all the back and forth of television commentators on the latest CDC guidance. We now know why it’s okay to socialize inside and out without a mask, provided you are vaccinated. Stores needn’t be concerned about who enters and shops maskless provided they themselves are vaccinated. If a particular maskless person (aka: former mask denier and antivaxxer) enters the store and they unknowingly have Covid, who’s at risk? Not the employee who is vaccinated, not other shoppers who are also vaccinated. Indeed, the only one at risk is any shopper who is also a denier and antivaxxer. In essence, the group of individuals who’ve spent the last year minimizing and trivializing Covid are the only ones at risk of getting it. This was not lost on the CDC. Checkmate. The opponent is cornered and they have nowhere else to move… except to get vaccinated.

To be fair, there are still individuals who for medical reasons have not gotten vaccinated. These are people with diagnoses that may legitimately put them at risk and must be concerned about how they move about the world moving forward. They should all be wearing N95 masks which protect them against anyone else, mask or maskless. There are, however, very very few people who cannot get the vaccine safely. The CDC knows this. For the most part, people still concerned about the vaccine because of their own health issues likely can get the vaccine without concern of bad reactions. Almost all of those who are not vaccinated and are not antivaxxers for political expedient reasons, are simply afraid of stories that people got sore arms, fatigue, fevers etc. from getting the vaccine. These mild symptoms get magnified into horrible stories the more remote one is from good health care or regular access to a nurse or physician for guidance. Having said that, I’m reminded of my physician colleagues who haven’t gotten vaccinated and I must allow for reasonable people having reasonable concerns. 

Covid is not done with us. The physician who died recently died in May. People will die this Summer and many more will die in the Fall and Winter. I fear the polarization that may happen as vaccinated people go about their lives while the unvaccinated try to do the same, gradually knowing all too well that Covid is lurking behind every clothing rack, dressing room or rest room. Maybe they’ll secretly go out and get vaccinated. Maybe this time next year we will have heard immunity—greater than 75-80% vaccinated. As for vaccination passports—European Union only permitting vaccinated individuals to visit or Dubai International only permitting vaccinated ticket holders to fly⏤that’s all material for some later post.

© Eric Clark 05/17/2021

Photo by: Marisol Benitez @ Unsplash