Charlie Baker defends new state masking guidance as delta variant takes root

Shortly after Gov. Charlie Baker and the Department of Public Health updated their mask guidance, Baker defended the state’s new recommendation that those most vulnerable to COVID-19 mask up, while most other Bay Staters — including parents of young children — can remain mask-free.

“This new guidance was developed to be as simple and straightforward as possible, and we also tailored it to Massachusetts,” Baker said of the Department of Public Health update, which keeps recommendations consistent between counties.

The new guidance, made in response to the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19 and a cluster of infections in Provincetown, recommends that fully vaccinated people wear face masks “if you have a weakened immune system, or if you are at increased risk for severe disease because of your age or an underlying medical condition, or if someone in your household has a weakened immune system, is at increased risk for severe disease, or is unvaccinated.”

It does not make specific recommendations for vaccinated people who fall outside those categories.

This guidance stands in contrast to federal Centers for Disease Control guidance released earlier this week, which recommends that people wear masks in areas of “substantial or high transmission.” In Massachusetts, this currently includes Barnstable (high), Bristol (substantial), Hampden (substantial), Nantucket (high), Plymouth (substantial), and Suffolk (substantial) counties.

The guidance, like Baker’s, also says that fully vaccinated people “might choose to wear a mask” if they fall into a high-risk category or live with someone who does.

Although the unvaccinated group by default includes all children under the age of 12 pending the FDA’s allowance for that group to be vaccinated, Baker didn’t suggest parents of young children mask up, arguing kids are not in a vulnerable group. The Department of Secondary Education’s guidance also stops short of mandating mask wearing for children under 12 or the staff who work with them, and doesn’t recommend that vaccinated students 12 and over wear masks, either.

“We fully expect cities and towns to make adjustments to do what’s right for their specific school districts,” he said, noting the vast disparity in student and staff vaccination rates among communities. He did clarify, though, that schools must remain open every day to all students.

This also flies in the face of the CDC’s recommendations, which include “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

Baker stressed that the best thing Bay Staters can do to keep the virus at bay is to get vaccinated.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/37byVD6