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California will wait until next month to implement recent masking guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for fully vaccinated people, state officials said Monday.
State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state will begin enforcing the new CDC guidance, which permits fully vaccinated people to forgo wearing a mask both indoors and outdoors in most situations, on June 15.
June 15 is also when the state plans to lift its tiered reopening system, formally called the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, allowing businesses to expand back to their full indoor capacities.
“This four-week period will give Californians time to prepare for this change while we continue the relentless focus on delivering vaccines, particularly to underserved communities and those that were hard hit throughout the pandemic,” Ghaly said Monday during a media teleconference briefing.
The CDC issued its updated guidance last Thursday, stating that it was safe for people who are at least two weeks past their last vaccination date to not wear a mask or practice social distancing.
California’s mask mandate requires people to wear a face covering at all times indoors or on public transit, regardless of vaccination status, unless actively eating or drinking.
Outside, state residents are not required to wear a mask or other face covering as long as they can maintain proper distance between themselves and others, regardless of vaccination status.
Ghaly argued that the state was not questioning the safety or timing of the CDC’s guidance by waiting until June 15 to lift California’s mask mandate.
Rather, state health officials plan to use the next month to determine to what extent the state will enforce some masking rules and how it will do so.
“It’s in no way saying the science or the direction by the CDC is wrong or there’s a challenge to it,” Ghaly said. “It’s really just giving ourselves across the state some additional time to have it implemented with a high degree of integrity with a continued focus on protecting the public health in mind.”
The state keeping its masking guidance in place for the next month will also apply to businesses, even if some have already announced they will adhere to the CDC’s guidance.
Between the CDC’s announcement on Thursday and Monday’s announcement by state officials, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Costco announced they would not require fully vaccinated customers to wear a mask indoors.
“The CDC has given states a chance to guide how (the new guidelines) get implemented,” Ghaly said. “So we expect businesses in California to adhere to where the state is, and move to implement these standards and prepare for them on June 15 as opposed to now.”
After June 15, Ghaly said the state may still deem it necessary to restart the mask mandate if coronavirus cases flare up.
Local jurisdictions and businesses will also have carte blanche, more or less, to require face masks indoors or in certain situations.
More than 34.5 million vaccine doses have been administered across the state since the coronavirus vaccines first became available in mid-December.
Roughly 15.6 million state residents — 49% of the state’s population — are fully vaccinated, according to state vaccination data. Another 4.7 million — 15% of the population — have received the first dose of either of the two-dose vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
“We continue to urge from the mountaintops, if you will, all Californians to get vaccinated to ensure that infections and hospitalization rates remain low across the state and that we can all return to those activities we love and have been missing for so long,” Ghaly said.
In this article, Ghaly said: “It’s in no way saying the science or the direction by the CDC is wrong or there’s a challenge to it,” Ghaly said. “It’s really just giving ourselves across the state some additional time to have it implemented with a high degree of integrity with a continued focus on protecting the public health in mind.”
Basically he is stating the CDC (their science) doesn’t know what they are talking about. All we heard from the left was: Follow the science! But now it’s inconvenient and goes against the talking heads. This is so hilarious, sad, and stupid to watch.
“At least he didn’t say to inject yourself some bleach.”
A demonstrably false accusation of what he said, and you know it.
Go ahead, post the quotes (in context) to show us what he said and the actual technology he was talking about.
Let’s see how intellectually honest you are.
I’ll wait.
Jake,
The CDC has gotten the whole science wrong from the very beginning. There is hours of footage of our “medical professionals” giving advice that they had to change in the next update.
They didn’t know what to do, and States like Florida, North Dakota and to a lesser extent, Texas, got it right.
I will never forget “two weeks to flatten the curve”.
Dan
So you admit that when you said HE SAID “bleach” that you were actually ignorant and had no idea what he said, right? You were told he said “bleach” so you, like the genius that you are, repeated a claim you heard without actually listening to him, right?
You know that light is a disinfectant, right? You know that the technology he was referring to was light, right Kevin?
Please don’t tell me that you don’t know this Kevin. Please don’t tell me that you are this ignorant and don’t know what he is talking about.
That would never happen, would it Kevin?
Dan
At least he didn’t say to inject yourself some bleach. No matter what he had said, you would be criticizing him because he is a Democrat.
“Basically he is stating the CDC (their science) doesn’t know what they are talking about.”
I agree.
This is same organization that promotes the idea that “gun violence” is an “epidemic” – and needs to be researched/studied as a “public health problem”. Firearms are not germs and there is no “disease” involved. An attempt by the political left using so called “science” to shift the debate away from criminal justice/law enforcement/personal responsibility issues to justify additional firearms restrictions/bans – for those who have nothing to do with violence.
Sorry he did not say bleach. He said disinfectant.
https://youtu.be/33QdTOyXz3w