The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s Director Rochelle Walensky said the federal government is “not counting on vaccine mandates” to stem the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re not counting on vaccine mandates at all,” she said during a Sunday segment of NBC’s Meet the Press. “It may very well be that local businesses, local jurisdictions will work towards vaccine mandates. That is going to be locally driven and not federally driven.”
Last week, the CDC earlier released guidance that those in the United States who have received both shots of a coronavirus vaccine may partake in both indoor and outdoor activities without a mask, regardless of crowd size. When asked how businesses would know who is vaccinated and who isn’t, the health authority said maskless non-immunized people “are not safe.”
THE CDC ACCEPTED REALITY ON MASKING THE VACCINATED — MORE OF THIS, PLEASE
“We are asking people to be honest with themselves, if they’re vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are safe,” she said. “If they are not vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are not safe.”
Walensky added that “the most important” thing businesses could do at the present time is allowing employees to get their shots.
“And what we’re asking businesses to do, probably the most important thing that businesses could do right now, is to work to ensure that it’s easy for their own employees to get vaccinated and to give them the time they need so they can make those appointments and get themselves vaccinated, so people in those businesses are safe,” she added.
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The U.S. has administered 273,545,207 vaccine doses out of 344,503,495 that have been distributed. The country has seen a 32% decline in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks, with an 18% drop and hospitalizations and a 13% dip in deaths, according to data from the New York Times.
Thirty-seven percent of the U.S. population have received both doses of the vaccine, while 47% have been given at least one dose.
