Dr Anurag Agarwal, member of the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Sars-CoV-2 Virus Evolution, explains if another round of vaccination makes sense or not.
the population has and our health officials. do you think the cdc needs to change its guidance? i do. here s the thing. the cdc has mentioned dr. walensky mentioned they re looking at the parameters around which they make their masking recommendations. looking at them is important but also being transparent about what these parameters are and how they are making these decisions is going to be key because right now what we don t know is we don t know exactly the data that they re going to be using when they reanalyze whether we should or shouldn t be wearing masks in indoor spaces. and as long as they re transparent, as long as they re honest and share that data, i think the public is going to get back to being confident in what they re saying. right now we have the states saying one thing and the cdc saying they re looking at this again, and that s just not enough. you say let s talk through some of the other statistics and get it to where you live and work every day. this is c
correspondent mark meredith starts us off tonight. good evening, mark. bret, good evening to you. federal health officials say omicron cases are on the decline, that s the good news. the cdc says it s also still not quite ready to change its masking recommendations, officials stress though changes are likely coming sooner rather than later. cases are declining. we are all cautiously optimistic about the trajectory we are on. we all share the same goal. to say get to a point where covid-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives. a time when it won t be a constant crisis. rather, something we can prevent, protect against, and treat. several states including new york and california dropped indoor masking requirements. several states keeping masking in place at schools for the time being. the white house says it thinks schools should be following cdc guidance which recommends everyone, regardless of vaccination wear a mask in schools. today virginia s new republican governor glenn y
tonight, cities and school district across the country with freshmans to drop their indoor mask mandates in line with the newest masking recommendations. cedar rapids, iowa, and long beach, california, dropping certain indoor mask mandates almost immediately. school districts from pennsylvania to ohio proposing to do the same. next tonight, washington, d.c. is steppings up security ahead of the president s state of the union address on tuesday setting up roadblocks and barriers. the defendant department approving the d.c. police request for assistance of up to 700 national guard personnel. authorities are also monitoring so-called trucker convoys like those in parts of canada protesting covid restrictions, departing from as far away as california that could make their way to the capital. and a reminder, david muir leads abc news live coverage of president biden s state of the union address and the response on tuesday starting at 9:00 eastern. when we come back the u.s.
we have some breaking news for you now in our health lead. the cdc is finally announcing new masking recommendations saying people in the vast majority of the united states no longer need to wear masks indoors. it come as covid cases have dropped 90% since reaching the peak in mid-january. they re now at pre omicron levels. but now mask mandates have already been scrapped in much of the united states as people are eager to return to seminormal. reporter: the cdc just announced nearly 70% of us no longer need to mask up indoors. we want to get people a break from things like mask wearing when our levels are low. and then have the ability to reach for them again should things get worse in the future.