Should Fully Vaccinated People Continue to Wear Masks? Experts Weigh In.

"Do whatever it takes for Covid to go away," one doctor said. That includes continuing to wear a mask.

More than 156 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated. But even though the Covid-19 vaccines are very effective against all the known coronavirus variants, including the highly transmissible delta variant that is spreading rapidly, some communities and physicians are urging a return to masking.

On Thursday, the St. Louis County and city public health departments issued a warning about the spread of the delta variant and advised a return to masks indoors, even if vaccinated. Earlier in the week, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced it "strongly recommends" that everyone wear a mask indoors after an increase in cases.

But despite a slowdown in the rate of vaccinations and the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases in the U.S., there is no indication the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will once again recommend masks for fully vaccinated individuals for the country as a whole.

"If you're vaccinated, you have a very high degree of protection from all of the variants that we are aware of circulating in the United States," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told NBC News.

When would masks be needed?

In areas with low vaccine uptake, a return to masks indoors, even for vaccinated people, may be appropriate, Walensky said. Nationwide, just over 55 percent of Americans eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine have been fully vaccinated.

"If you're in a community that has a high amount of disease and less than a third of your population is vaccinated, one should consider whether the policy should be to mask," Walensky said. Masking is "more about protecting the two-thirds of the community that are not vaccinated."

Currently, approximately 1,000 counties in the U.S. have vaccination coverage of less than 30 percent, she said. Read More

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When it comes to populations groups that are undervaccinated in the United States, the following groups top the list--white evangelicals, Republicans, people in rural counties, Blacks and Hispanics, and people in the South and the Mid-West. Anti-vaxxers are spreading disinformation and misinformation on social media and fueling people's fears. Churches can serve their communities by combatting the anti-vaxx propaganda, encouraging people to get vaccinated or if they have receive the first dose of a two dose vaccine, to get the second dose, and to serve as vaccination centers for the community.