Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, called on federal health officials to lift mask guidelines for outside use now that more than half of adults in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“As conditions improve, policy makers must show they’re willing to ease restrictions as swiftly as they imposed them, and a critical early test will be on wearing masks outside,” Gottlieb wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Gottlieb headed the FDA under former President Donald Trump.
More than half of all states require people to wear masks in all public settings despite evidence that the pandemic is receding. Vaccination rates in the U.S. have remained high, with about 3 million shots administered each day. Nearly 54% of U.S. adults have received at least one shot, and more than 36% of adults have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, case rates are falling even as highly transmissible variants of the virus circulate, signaling the vaccination campaign’s success.
“This is the time to revisit rules on masking and distancing in low-risk outdoor settings like parks and sports venues,” Gottlieb said. “Easing these rules would move more activity outdoors, which reduces viral transmission.”
PUBLIC RETURN TO NORMAL LIFE OUTPACING FEDERAL GUIDANCE
Many governors have resisted lifting outdoor masking rules before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention despite evidence that transmission rates are far lower outside than they are in people’s homes or other indoor settings. CDC masking guidelines, last updated in late January, when the vaccination campaign was still finding its footing, still note that people should still wear masks in “public settings and mass transportation, at events and gatherings, and anywhere you will be around other people.”
The CDC has been conservative in its moves to lift COVID-19 precautions even with the growing vaccinated population. The agency was slow off the mark with the release of safety guidelines for fully vaccinated people in March, when it said that people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can gather safely without social distancing or wearing masks. People have already increasingly resumed travel and restaurant dining, outpacing federal guidance.
“Public-health officials need to be willing to relax some restrictions and tolerate a low level of risk,” Gottlieb said. “Americans shouldn’t be afraid to go outside and enjoy the warm weather — no mask required.”
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After months of ramped up vaccine production, the Biden administration is expected to have a surplus of about 300 million doses by the end of July.
