talking to their parents to convince them to get a shot? it will apply when this next group gets the green light as well. that s exactly right. what i m seeing in my office is that parents are saying, why would i do this? this is a mild illness in children and i think that idea took fruit and it s been so hard to tell parents, listen, this is a lottery you re playing each time. your child is vulnerable every day they re not vaccinated. what i found work is, i understand you re thinking about this. let s put a deadline on it. let s think about it for two weeks. what information do you need to gather in the next two weeks and let s set a follow-up. let s set up another visit to talk about this and you can ask me any additional questions that have come up but the wait, wait, wait, i m not sure and it just sort of lingers, it s not really the way to go. that s interesting. hadn t heard about setting a deadline to follow up. it s a great idea. state officials in general are citing the f
fda vaccine advisers are currently studying the data and preparing to meet in two weeks to discuss whether to recommend emergency use authorization of pfizer s covid vaccine for kids 6 months to 4 years old. nick watts reports that the talk is about ending restrictions. reporter: should we be rolling back restrictions? nixing more mask mandates? a lot of reluck attention to do that. we need to move in and remove them. that will be a struggle with the public health community because everyone is weary and has been sort of burned before. we ve got to be doing contingency planning ahead of the american public health association, told cnn, maybe the covid task force lays that out for the nation. that white house task force just met last hour. i think we are all cautiously
another body bag. reporter: tiffani porter s 3-year-old got severely ill. she s grateful she made it home from the hospital. this virus doesn t care who you are. it doesn t care your age. it doesn t care anything about you. reporter: but new covid cases are now falling in 47 states. hospitalizations down 33% in the last two weeks. governors weighing when to roll back restrictions, pressing the white house for a clear roadmap. what does the road from pandemic to endemic look like? and how do we keep score? reporter: and tonight a new study out of california showing higher quality masks give better protection. researchers found an n95 mask lowered the odd of getting covid by 83% compared to no mask. surgical masks lowered by 66%, and cloth masks by 56%. david, late today the cdc director giving the green light on full approval for the moderna vaccine for everyone 18 and up. it now joins pfizer.
the situation that we find ourselves in. and you just heard ron who said what many of us were feeling. everyone is tired of it. no more than you folks on the front lines. but we ve heard about this stealth omicron variant that was detected in florida. are you concerned about this news of variants particularly with officials rolling back restrictions? frankly. yes. we are going the wrong way in terms of trying to manage this pandemic. i understand, yes we are exhausted. we want to take off our masks and go back to normal. unfortunately, that s not the reality we are dealing with. and, this has so many you mutations, so many mutations from omicron, in fact, the ba. 2 is more different than omicron than the alpha variant from covid to. and in the already documented
things like mask wearing and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen. we ll soon put guidance in place. reporter: for now the cdc says hospital capacity remains a top priority amid considerations for when to roll back restrictions. according to the agency, virus transmission is considered substantial or high in 97% of counties nationwide. even so, nearly every state is pushing ahead in the absence of new guidance. there are just three states left that have yet to announce an end to mask mandates. local authorities are taking the lead but after two years of deep divides over how to handle the pandemic, there are some irreparable rifts. kaiser health news reports douglas county, colorado, and the city of west covina in southern california are splitting from their public health agencies to perform their own local departments. with omicron s peak now behind us, disney, universal studios orlando, and coachella all announcing they re dropping mask