The Latest CDC Guidance Is Not a Reason to Abandon Caution

 

Form the reports that I have seen, the new CDC guidance for fully-vaccinated people is creating some confusion. First the CDC finally gets around to acknowledging what scientists have been saying for several months. COVID-19 is an airborne virus. Its primary means of transmission is airborne particles. People need to wear face masks, They need to avoid small enclosed poorly ventilated spaces. They need to avoid crowds. They need to avoid large outdoor gatherings where people are standing or sitting in close quarters to each other. They need to keep more than a six-foot space between themselves and other people. The wider the space, the better. Then the CDC makes what seems like an about face and relaxes its guidance for fully-vaccinated people.

One problem that has cropped up is that the CDC does not offer guidance for fully-vaccinated parents with unvaccinated children. Children are not naturally immune to COVID-10. They do contract the virus and they do spread it. While some children develop mild symptoms, others have required hospitalization. A number of children have developed a serious COVID-19 related blood syndrome. The latest research points to COVID-19 being a disease of the cardiovascular system rather than a pulmonary disease. This is not to say that it does not do serious and lasting damage to people’s lungs, damage far worse than influenza.

The CDC is NOT recommending unvaccinated people discontinue wearing face masks, social distancing, and washing their hands. They should continue to follow earlier guidance about small enclosed poorly ventilated spaces, crowds, and large outdoor gatherings. Unvaccinated people who are infected with the virus can infect other unvaccinated people.

The CDC has also published a list of circumstances in which the agency recommends that fully-immunized people still wear masks. The CDC has not changed this guidance.

The CDC is recommending that fully vaccinated people who have an autoimmune disorder or take medication that suppresses their immune system wear masks and follow other precautionary measures.

The CDC also recommends that if a fully-vaccinated person develops symptoms of COVID-19, they should stay home and self-isolate.

The CDC further recommends that fully-vaccinated people who feel uncomfortable without their face masks should continue to wear them.

Dr. Fauci does not recommend that fully-vaccinated people throw away their face masks but keep them for flu season and other possible outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The CDC still does not know how long the immunity the vaccines confer will last and how effective they will be against the new variants that keep popping up. The CDC is particularly concerned about the Indian variant which has been devastating the Indian population and just showed up in the United States.

Health experts are keeping an eye on this variant and the other new variants and do not rule out a surge of infections in the fall when cold weather forces people indoors and into closer contact with each other.

While more people are getting vaccinated, only about a third of the population is fully-vaccinated. This leaves a very large pocket of unvaccinated people for the new variants to spread in.

A problem that businesses and places of worship are facing is distinguishing fully-vaccinated people from unvaccinated people. While some businesses are relying on the honor system, others continue to require masks. The honor system is notoriously unreliable and people who have refused to wear face masks and observe other preventative measures and to be vaccinated can be expected to abuse it.

A number of health experts have expressed concern about what they describe as the CDC’s turnaround from a cautious approach to a less cautious one. Having signaled to fully-vaccinated people that they do need to be as cautious as the agency previously advised, the CDC may have also given the wrong signal to unvaccinated people too. People are also apt to hear what they want to hear and not what they are being told.

I am recommending that churches take a wait-and-see attitude. While churches may choose to relax their own restrictions, they also need to be prepared to quickly reimplement them should the new CDC guidance and the subsequent relaxation of state and local restrictions result in an upsurge in new infections. I recommend that churches establish a section for unvaccinated attendees in worship services, permit only fully-vaccinated volunteers and staff to work with children, restrict in-person Sunday school classes and small groups to fully-vaccinated people, and use open well-ventilated spaces for Sunday school classes and small groups. 

Infections are down right now, but the warmer weather, increased outdoor activity, and other factors may account for these lower rates beside vaccination. Many people who got their first dose of the two dose vaccines did not get their second. Many younger people, although vaccine was available, were not getting vaccinated. A number of states had to throw away vaccine because it had expired, and they had a vaccine surplus due to vaccine hesitancy.

I suspect that the thinking behind the latest CDC guidance is to provide an incentive for getting vaccinated—a carrot for the donkey. However, the donkey is pretty stubborn, and this strategy has a good chance of backfiring. With restrictions relaxed for fully-vaccinated people, some people will think to themselves, “Why go to the bother? No one will know that I am not vaccinated.” People do think that way.  

I am acquainted with a number of people who have been telling people to throw away their face masks, ignore the other precautionary measures, and not to get vaccinated. The new CDC guidance is not going to change the way that they think. It may have the opposite effect.

We are eager to return to a time that resembles the pre-COVID-19 days, but when I look at what is happening around the world, I do not think that we have entered such a period. What we may be experiencing is a seasonal lull in infections, a lull that may cause us to lower our guard only to experience a resurgence of virus cases. While I may sound like Puddleglum the Marsh Wiggle in C. S. Lewis Narnia story, The Silver Chair, I believe that until we have an idea of how the latest CDC guidance will play out, we should not let our excitement get the best of us.