Throughout the pandemic I have been in awe of the work of our state public health officials. Doctors like Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, were for months on weekly calls with long-term care providers going through the latest facts about COVID-19, fielding questions and offering guidance.
The pandemic is not over. While I am grateful to be vaccinated myself, and proud that most workers and residents in the long-term care facilities volunteered to be vaccinated, the vaccines are not perfect, though closer to perfection than we once dared dream.
Accordingly, breakthrough cases among the vaccinated will remain an issue so long as the population is not vaccinated to a level to create so-called herd immunity. Those infections may be mild or asymptomatic, but can be transmissible.
So I am frustrated that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chose to precipitously announce a new “honor system” mask policy, where those purporting to be vaccinated can remove their masks even indoors around strangers. All of us had witnessed, even prior to vaccines becoming available, people ignore private business policies – and, for a time, a state mandate – and remove their masks after entering businesses. Many never wore them correctly to begin with, allowing respiratory transmission. We are now to trust these same people are vaccinated next to us without masks?
No one should have expected mask wearing to continue ad infinitum. We have not cured COVID-19, and will have to coexist with its presence in our world. But to rush that process is not the right answer, however much political pressure exists to show results with vaccines.
The CDC should have consulted with those on the ground fighting this virus, with epidemiologists like Dr. Chan, before releasing this new policy. Because with major businesses quickly dropping mandatory mask policies, and switching to an honor system, there will be no putting this genie back in its bottle. The inconvenience of wearing a mask was probably one of the best tools to encourage vaccination.
People hear what they want to hear. I know businesses that got pushback from customers after Gov. Chris Sununu lifted his statewide mask mandate because customers argued the governor said masks were not necessary. That is completely wrong.
In fact, as Gov. Sununu stated, “It is important to note that this mandate going away will not limit or prevent the ability of private businesses and local cities and towns from requiring masks.” Similarly, in the governor’s press release, Dr. Chan said at that time that “(t)he lifting of the mandate does not diminish the importance of wearing a face mask.”
Now many people will mishear what the CDC announced (garbled enough to begin with) and throw caution to the wind. I am concerned about health care workers who must go out among a public where a large portion of people are still unvaccinated. I am also concerned about the racial inequity so far in vaccination progress, which is going to require more outreach.
Finally, we are still seeing a lot of community transmission. In fact, on May 13, the day the new CDC policy was announced, there were more diagnosed new cases in the U.S. (38,534) than there were on May 13 of last year (21,145). And that is even with many people now vaccinated.
Our New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services is doing a great job in getting our population vaccinated. We do not need that essential work stalled by what appears to be the federal government prematurely declaring victory.
(Brendan Williams is the president/CEO of the New Hampshire Health Care
Association.)