WHO, CDC release conflicting guidance for fully vaccinated people
/ Our Today
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By Juanique Tennant
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are at odd over what protocols fully vaccinated individuals should be guided by.
Addressing a news briefing in Geneva on Monday (March 8), WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of squandering the progress that has been made around the world ahead of the March 11 anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Ghebreyesus: “We have come so far, we have suffered so much, and we have lost so many. We cannot… we must not… squander the progress we have made.”
These statements from the WHO director general were made just hours after the CDC released new guidelines to suggest that fully vaccinated people can now begin to safely visit with other vaccinated people and small
groups of unvaccinated people.
As per the CDC guidelines, fully vaccinated people may:
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart.
- Visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying six feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.
- Refrain from quarantine and testing if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19 after contact with someone who has COVID-19.
Despite this, there are still instances in which a fully vaccinated individual may still need to take precautions, such as:
- Wearing a mask and keeping good physical distance around the unvaccinated who are at an increased risk for severe COVID-19, or if the unvaccinated person has a household member who is at higher risk.
- Wear masks and physically distance when visiting unvaccinated people who are from multiple households.
Even in light of these new guidelines, however, former director of the CDC, Dr Tom Frieden, argues: “We’re not done yet, COVID isn’t done with us… . You don’t declare victory in the third quarter.”
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