Topic: Do we still need to wear a mask outdoors?
“I’m vaccinated and I’m outside. Do I really still need to wear a mask?”
“If I’m on a run and not near a lot of people. Do I need a mask?”
“If I’m walking down the sidewalk and pass someone – should I put my mask on?”
As the warmer weather months arrive and the percentage of vaccinated Americans gradually ticks upwards, these are some of the questions a growing number of Americans are asking.
If you’re vaccinated, “I’d say for the most part, you don’t need to wear a mask outdoors,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Thursday on CNN’s New Day.
That’s because it’s known most viral transmission doesn’t happen outdoors.
A November review in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that the odds of viral transmission are 18.7 times greater indoors than out, and less than 10% of Covid-19 infections studied occurred outside.
Nooshin Razani, one of the authors and an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, told Slate the true number of instances of outdoor transmission was “probably lower” than 10%.
Current guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes it clear masks might not be needed outside. “Masks may not be necessary when you are outside by yourself away from others, or with people who live in your household,” it says. The CDC does not say anything specific for vaccinated people.
Discussed: Do we still need to wear a mask outdoors?
