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Nurses’ union denounces CDC, state guidance
Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcement last week that face masks are no longer necessary for fully vaccinated individuals, California says it will not lift its mask mandate until June 15, the state’s targeted re-opening date.
After the CDC’s announcement more than a dozen states, including California’s neighbor-to-the-north Oregon, have already loosened masking guidelines. (The CDC noted that everybody — fully vaccinated or not — should still wear masks in crowded indoor areas like hospitals, airplanes, buses and prisons.)
However, California officials said on Monday, May 17 that before it can follow the lead of more than a dozen states that have already slackened their mask mandates following the CDC announcement, California residents should still keep wearing masks and practice social distancing indoors until June 15.
As of Tuesday, May 18, California still continues to be the leader in vaccine distribution across the country and has so far distributed 35.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
About 39% of the population (15.4 million people) is currently fully vaccinated, according to data aggregation from Our World in Data.
The state’s plan to loosen its mask mandate may be a welcome announcement to individuals who’ve grown frustrated over the strict public safety protocols. However, the state’s largest nurses union is encouraging the state to maintain mandatory masking and condemned the CDC’s recent guidance on masking.
Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, a Filipina American registered nurse and president of California’s Nurses Association (CNA) and its national affiliate National Nurses Union (NNU), said that while COVID-19 numbers are trending downward, there are still unvaccinated people suffering the more severe effects of the virus.
“When it comes to public health, science must be the North Star,” said Triunfo-Cortez. “Right now, more than 600 people a day are still dying of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than half of the population is not yet fully vaccinated. California’s decision to wait to make any changes to the current guidance on masking and other critical protections is a prudent one that we applaud. We encourage our state officials to continue to look to the data and the science when making these critical public health decisions and not cave to political pressure or arbitrary timelines.”
The CNA cited the continuing coronavirus crisis across the country where 35,000 new detected infections with more than 610 COVID-related deaths reported daily.
The CNA also noted that the recent amendments to the mask mandate — and other public safety measures — would “disproportionately harm” communities of color and “children under 12, the immunocompromised and medically vulnerable people who do not qualify for vaccination.”
“There has been so much inequity in the vaccine rollout and racial inequity in who is an essential worker put most at risk by this guidance. The impact of the CDC’s guidance update will be felt disproportionately by workers of color and their families and communities,” said Triunfo-Cortez.
As people and businesses start to shift to the upcoming changes ahead of June 15, state officials are still placing a “relentless focus on delivering vaccines, particularly in underserved communities and those that were hard hit throughout this pandemic,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency, said on Monday, May 17.
Los Angeles County, one of the hardest hit regions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, said on Monday that it will be following the state’s protocol and will continue its mask mandate until June 15.
According to the county’s public health officials, masks are still required for everyone attending large events, riding public transportation, shopping at retail stores and business establishments, and at workplaces.
For unvaccinated people, masks are still required outdoors at any time when distancing cannot be maintained, but for fully vaccinated people, masks are not required outdoors unless attending crowded events or indoor/outdoor visits with other fully vaccinated people (and with unvaccinated people who don’t share households with high-risk individuals).
