is down here in the south where, you know, you look at a state like louisiana where only 17% of the adolescents are vaccinated, maybe 30 to 40% of the young adults, and now schools are going to open down here in a couple of weeks in some of the louisiana parishs. this isn t going to go well. this virus, as bad as things are right now, it s about to get much worse when schools open in the south, and i think that s what we re dealing with. right, so but just in terms of d.c., right, does a mask mandate make more sense than a vaccine mandate? i mean, if the problem is so many people are unvaccinated, would it not make more sense and look, i don t proposal polz, but i m just reacting to mayor bowser s announcement, she s saying we all have to wear masks indoors if we re vaccinated. would a vaccine mandate make more sense than that? ie deally you do both. i agree, vaccine mandates would
monday, adding he wants to, quote, keep the focus on the one thing that will make a difference, which is vaccination. jay. athena jones, thank you so much. joining us live to discuss, dr. peter hotez, thanks for joining us. here in washington, d.c., the mayor is reimplementing an indoor mask requirement for everyone over the age of 2, even if we are fully vaccinated. what is the risk for a room full of vaccinated people that, one, vaccinated person would have covid and then transmit it to another vaccinated person? it strikes me that it would probably be rather narrow. yeah, certainly if you ve had a room full of vaccinated people, the risk is probably relatively low. the problem is that situation doesn t happen very often. if you have a gathering of significant numbers of people, we still have a lot of unvaccinated people in the united states unfortunately, and
be the most effective way to do this, but masks still provide an important backstop, especially with the performance feature against the delta variant that you re still seeing some asymptomatic transmission going on. so ideally, the more you could do the better. those are our two best defenses against this virus are vaccines and masks. so i don t know what the politics are in washington, d.c., around vaccine mandates. across the country, vaccine policies usually sit at the state level. we have a lot of issues here in some of our southern states for doing that. it would be great to implement both if possible. i don t think any state has implemented a vaccine mandate. we are seeing a deluge of private companies now telling their employees if you want to return to work, if you want to continue to work, you have to get vaccinated. you tweeted some skepticism that this is going to work. why? i think, you know, the
or high case or rates will follow the mask guidance as being laid down by the cdc. i certainly will and i have because this is one of those areas in washington. and my decision, my direction all federal personnel and visitors to federal buildings will have to do the same thing. as i said from the beginning, a mask is not a political statement. it s about protecting yourself and protecting others. masking is one defense against the spread of covid-19. but make no mistake. vaccines are the best defense against you getting severely ill from covid-19. the very best defense, and you want to know how we put this virus behind us? i ll trell you how. we need to get more people vaccinated. look, and it s important to
indoors in public, washington d.c. s mayor and baltimore county public schools announcing indoor mask mandates for everyone, regardless of vaccination status. and starting tomorrow, masks are mandatory indoors for those age 2 and older at disney land in california and walt disney world in florida. enslaving our children. reporter: but a showdown on masks in schools in the sunshine state looks increasingly likely with broward county s school board approving a mask mandate and miami-dade county s board considering one, governor ron desantis hinting he could call a legislative session to ensure masks remain optional in schools. i think it s very important that we say unequivocally no to lockdowns, no to school closures, no to restrictions, and no mandates. reporter: and when it comes to bringing back an indoor mask mandate right here in new york city, mayor de blasio says he ll have more to say about that on