Expert opinions differ on CDC's new mask guidance
Patrons die at Gallo Colombian Restaurant in Patchogue on Jan. 22. New CDC guidance has loosened mask recommendations. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost
With COVID-19 rates continuing to decline, now is a safer time than a few weeks ago to be in crowded indoor settings, but experts' opinions vary on whether it’s a good idea to forgo masks, despite new CDC guidance that loosens mask recommendations.
Long Island’s seven-day coronavirus positivity rate Friday remained at 1.93% for the second day in a row, the lowest percent of positive test results since July 21.
What to know
Experts say it’s safer now than a few weeks ago to be in crowded indoor spaces, but their opinions vary as to whether it’s advisable to forgo masks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday loosened its mask guidelines, and Long Island is no longer one of the regions where masks are recommended for healthy people.
Long Island’s seven-day positivity rate Friday stood at 1.93%, the lowest level since July 21, when the delta variant was beginning to spread. Hospitalizations have declined by 86% since Jan. 11.
Under new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention metrics, Long Island is viewed as "low COVID-19 community level," so there is no longer a recommendation that healthy residents wear masks in public indoor places, although agency officials said those who feel safer with a mask on could still wear them.
"For me, I’m wearing a mask and I’m going to continue to do so," said Sean Clouston, an associate professor of public health at Stony Brook University.
Clouston said he’s dined indoors at restaurants if there’s enough space between tables, and he’s forgone masks when visiting some people.
In weighing risks, the number of people in a venue and the distance between people are among the factors to consider, he said.
Even with COVID-19 rates relatively low, if you’re in, for example, a movie theater with hundreds of people, "there’s a very good chance someone in that movie theater has COVID, and then you’re guessing a bit about how far away you are from that person," he said.
Stony Brook associate professor of public health Sean Clouston. Credit: Randee Daddona
Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease expert and medical director of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, said that with COVID-19 rates lower, he’s less vigilant about masks than a few weeks ago.
"I’m just walking out of the gym right now and I was not wearing a mask," Hirschwerk said.
He emphasized, though, that it’s up to each person as to how much risk to assume. People who are immunocompromised should use high-quality masks like N95s or KN95s in crowded indoor settings, and for those with frequent close contact with older or more vulnerable people, or with a young child not eligible for vaccination, a mask may be a "very reasonable choice," he said.
Overall, though, he said the CDC was on target in revising its recommendations.
"The decision as to the need to mask is really based on what the rates are in our area," he said. "When rates are very low it becomes less important because there’s less virus overall and there are naturally going to be fewer people carrying the virus."
Hirschwerk said that if mask recommendations are lifted during times of less virus spread, "the hope is if we experience another surge where the rates go up significantly and then there are recommendations to use masks again, hopefully people would be more willing to go along with that."
People who are unvaccinated and not recently infected with COVID-19 "remain at risk," he said.
The new recommendations for mask-wearing take into account COVID-19 hospitalizations in addition to the rate of new COVID-19 cases. The previous guidelines focused on new cases and positivity rates.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Long Island has fallen 86%, to 321 on Friday, since the Jan. 11 wintertime peak of 2,254.
The number of new Long Island COVID-19 cases also has plummeted, from nearly 14,000 on Jan. 5 and a seven-day positivity rate of 26.76%, to 233 cases on Friday and a seven-day rate of 1.93%.
That’s the lowest rate since July 21, when the delta variant was beginning to spread and was pushing up positivity rates, which had been below 1% from mid-May through early July.
Thirty-three New Yorkers died of COVID-19 on Friday, including a Suffolk County resident.
The CDC’s guidelines are not binding. In New York, a mask mandate for schools remains, although Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Friday that she is "evaluating the CDC’s new guidance" and would "coordinate with all stakeholders in our school communities across our state." She previously said her decision would be based in part on results of COVID-19 tests kids are to take in the next several days.
Clouston said that, no matter what happens, he will ask his daughters to still wear masks at school.
"If your child is still unvaccinated, now is a really good time to get them vaccinated," he added.
If the mandate is lifted and classrooms have a mix of masked and unmasked kids, even children who continue to wear masks are at higher risk than if everyone were wearing a mask, he said. The same is true in any public indoor setting.
"The mask serves to filter the air coming into your mouth, but it also serves to filter the air that is coming out of someone else’s mouth," he said. "So if the person who is infectious is wearing a mask, then the amount of viral particles that are around in the air is reduced."
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David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
