Name: When can Californians stop wearing masks? Experts are torn
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When can Californians stop wearing masks? Experts are torn

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California is finally in a bright spot in a long and dark pandemic. The coronavirus case rate in the Golden State is the . More than of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Winter has passed. The days are longer, the weather warmer and people are spending more time outdoors.&nbsp;Are these all signs California is ready to lift its mask mandate?Experts concur a mask requirement in indoor public and common spaces remains necessary, since a large body of research indicates the virus spreads easily indoors."Even if you're vaccinated," Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus and infectious diseases expert at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, said in an email, "mask-wearing indoors remains important unless you are with a small group of people who also are vaccinated."Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at UCSF, said the indoor mask mandate should be maintained until everyone in the state who wants a vaccine can get it and is past their second dose.&nbsp;"This is because those who are vaccinated are protected from infection and because those who are vaccinated protect the non-vaccinated since these vaccines reduce transmission," Gandhi wrote.She pointed to data from Israel showing that for every 20-point increase in vaccination of adults 16 and over, the risk of transmission to children is cut in half."Masks can still be recommended after that for indoor closed settings, especially for vulnerable older individuals, but there is a difference between making this a mandate (which is appropriate for a public health emergency) and people choosing to wear masks in the future once all who wants to can get the vaccine and is two weeks past their second shot," she explained.While scientists are on the same page with the necessity for masks indoors, their recommendations differ with mask-wearing outdoors.&nbsp;Gandhi thinks it's time to stop requiring face-coverings outdoors across California, including in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she gives two reasons why."One, all the data that shows outside transmission is so much lower than inside (by &gt;1000-fold) – not wearing masks outside has been consistent with WHO [World Health Organization] guidance all along," Gandhi, who has written five papers on masking and was among the first in the country calling for universal masking, wrote in an email. "Two, to help increase trust in public health officials and — as we vaccinate — to give Americans a sense of hope of more normalcy soon."Dr. Inci Yilidirim, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Yale Medicine, also said she thinks that mandates on outdoor masking should be reconsidered, as more people get vaccinated and we reach herd immunity."We know that the odds of spreading the virus is significantly higher indoors and less than 10 percent of transmission occurs outdoors," Yildirim said. "I think with the recent numbers of individuals who have been vaccinated, at this time of the pandemic the guidelines regarding mask use, especially in outdoors, will need to be updated to lift some of the restrictions we have had."She makes a caveat for individuals who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 — elders, the immunocompromised and those unable to be vaccinated for health reasons. For these communities, she said, wearing masks and staying socially distant — even outdoors — is key.&nbsp;But the subject of loosening up outdoor masking remains up for debate. "I don’t think it is time for the outdoor mask mandate to be lifted in California — yet," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, said. "But it is healthy to reevaluate the contexts in which masks may be more of a good idea while outdoors and which are safer activities."Chin-Hong said COVID is still circulating in the state and California is identifying about 2,000 new cases a day while several parts of the country are exploding with new cases. "Since we have open borders, it is everyone’s problem when one part of the country has a surge," he said. "But I do agree that open communication and metrics that public health may follow would give us a destination to aspire to especially before June 15."Context is everything, he added. "No one will fault you for not wearing a mask running in Golden Gate park on a quiet day, but I’d surely be nervous about not wearing a mask in a crowded outdoor political rally with lots of noses and mouths from different households around," he said. "Same with a mosh pit at Coachella."Berkeley's Swartzberg also calls for a more cautious approach with masking outside — especially when individuals are in close proximity to one another."If you are vaccinated and outdoors in close proximity to others whose vaccine status is unknown, I would put my mask on," he said in an email to SFGATE, describing it still as a "common courtesy" to do so.&nbsp;We're still at a point, he notes, where we can't guarantee that everyone who wants a vaccine around us has obtained one. "Since people won't know if you have been vaccinated, they understandably will feel uncomfortable being around someone who is not masked," he said.That said, Swartzberg acknowledged that if you're away from other people and you are vaccinated, "the risk of becoming infected is extremely small.""Each individual must judge their own risk tolerance," said Swartzberg.Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn't commented on when he plans to lift the state's mask mandate that first went into effect in . Newsom announced earlier this month the state will fully reopen its economy on June 15 and dissolve the so-called Blueprint for a Safer Economy, whose tier levels dictate which businesses can open based on the severity of virus spread in a county.At the time, the governor was asked whether masking would continue to be enforced after the June reopening.&nbsp;"We don't have any short term goals as it relates to lifting the mask mandate," he said, according to .&nbsp;The California Department of Public Health reiterated in a statement to SFGATE on Thursday that when the economy fully reopens this summer "common-sense health measures will remain across the state, including an ongoing mask mandate."The department said that wearing a mask in all public and workplace settings is more important than ever with new, more easily transmitted variants on the rise.&nbsp;"As with all COVID-19 related matters, California continues to follow the science and apply it to our state based on our local conditions," the department said. "We will continue to evaluate the mask mandate and make changes, if and when appropriate."

California is finally in a bright spot in a long and dark pandemic. The coronavirus case rate in the Golden State is the . More than of the adult population is fully vaccinated. Winter has passed. The days are longer, the weather warmer and people are spending more time outdoors.&nbsp;Are these all signs California is ready to lift its mask mandate?Experts concur a mask requirement in indoor public and common spaces remains necessary, since a large body of research indicates the virus spreads easily indoors."Even if you're vaccinated," Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus and...

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When can Californians stop wearing masks? Experts are torn

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