immunocompromised. those are black communities, latinx communities. we need to think about the downward effects of these policy changes. yes, i do agree. who wants to wear a mask for the rest of their lives? i think a lot of these policies, one, need to be data driven. we need to think about metrics, not just hospitalizations or hospital capacity. what are the local community vaccination rates? what s are the local transmission levels? we know that substantial high transmission levels, which means more than 50 cases per hundred thousand residences, the cdc still requires a mask. that represents the majority of u.s. counties right now. so, we need federal guidance in terms of thinking about when do we put on and wind we take off mask mandates? we need to do it in a methodical matter. and, we need to think about the most vulnerable. so, if we take up all of our masks, we are making a very dangerous situation for those
adolescents in middle schools and high schools can have a good school year, that the teachers are safe. teachers have to be vaccinated. the staff has to be vaccinated. the bus drivers have to be vaccinated. that will have the added benefit of expanding community vaccination rates to lower transmission overall, which will keep the little kids safer. that has to be the number one priority. but what about the kids 12 and under or under 12, i guess, that can t get vaccinated? then the virus moves into whatever unvaccinated population it can find. that s the risk. i think if we have mandatory masks as a backstop, i think that will help a lot. and if we can accelerate community vaccination rates, that can help, as well. for instance, alisyn, if you re sending your kid to school in vermont or massachusetts in a few weeks, i think you can feel pretty good. because almost all of the adults, almost all the adolescents are vaccinated, and you re not seeing the steep
completely. i m afraid that as more large population centers open, we will see more rotation a virus to the community. through the household and back into the schools, over and over again. wherever there are relaxation s and mask-wearing policies. and wherever, overall community vaccination rates are low. what we see across america is really big geographic differences in the distribution of vaccine use. in the willingness to abide by community protection measures, such as wearing masks. and so i think we are going to see really differentiated, fragmented epidemic. with totally different dynamics, from one part of the country to another. this is all going to be based on politics. it s going to be based on political decisions that have been made by leaders in one part of the country versus
of course i agree with dr. blackstock s assessment completely. and i m afraid that as schools open more and more across concentrated areas of the country, large population centers, we re going to see more rotation of virus through the community, through the households and back into the schools over and over and over again. wherever there are relaxations in mask-wearing policies and wherever overall community vaccination rates are low. what we see across america is really big geographic differences in the distribution of vaccine use and in the willingness to abide by community protection measures, such as wearing masks. so, i think we re going to see a really differentiated, fragmented epidemic with totally different dynamics from one part of the country to the other. and this is all going to be based on politics.
compared to a month ago. we have the delta variant, which in people who are infected with it, they have about a thousand times the amount of virus than they would if they got infected with the original variant. we don t know for those individuals, are they able to transmit the delta variant to others? and so as a result, use the abundance of caution approach. i hope the biden administration hits the reset button and says, we acknowledge we are at a very different point and therefore we should follow the example of l.a. county and say then if there are places where vaccinated and unvaccinated people are mixing, then indoor mask mandates should still apply. there are exceptions, two exceptions, in fact. one is if there is proof of vaccination and everybody is fully vaccinated, then you can take off your mask. or if there is a high level of community vaccination rates, then indoor mask mandates don t need to be there. but i really think it is time for us to reinstate some of these masking