How safe is it for vaccinated Californians to go about mask-free indoors now that it’s no longer a state requirement?
A good gauge might be to watch what top health experts are doing as California on Tuesday drops its pandemic restrictions on how many people can be inside stores, restaurants and most other indoor places, and the requirement that everyone wear a face mask indoors whether vaccinated or not.
“My approach to this is to hurry slowly,” Dr. John Swartzberg, professor emeritus of infectious disease and vaccinology with the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. Though fully vaccinated, he’s not comfortable with the idea of going without a mask when he doesn’t know if others around him are immunized.
“I’m going to keep a mask on for a while until I see the direction things are going,” Swartzberg said.
He’s hardly an exception among medical experts.
Dr. Bob Wachter, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Medicine, who was flying back to California Tuesday, said he’s only dropping the mask if “I’m sure that everyone is vaccinated or, if there are unvaccinated there, that they’re all wearing a mask.”
“Since there is virtually no way to be sure of the latter, I’m still masking indoors,” Wachter added, when he goes to places like stores.
Wachter was wearing a mask on his flight home — as is still recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on all forms of public transportation. Since being vaccinated, he had already resumed air travel months ago, despite reservations about the potential for the virus to spread when people aboard remove face masks to eat or drink.
“I’m wearing a mask the whole time,” Wachter said, “taking it off only briefly to gobble something down.”
And he’s also resumed dining indoors “for the right occasion,” though he will choose outdoors if given a choice, assuming “it’s not frigid” in the city.
“So no significant changes today compared with yesterday,” Wachter said. “Bottom line is that I’m doing exactly the same as I’ve been doing for the last month.”
Why are so many doctors uneasy with the idea of fully embracing a return to normal? Do they know something that perhaps Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t?
A big reason is that while COVID-19 infection rates have plummeted in California and much of the U.S. as vaccination rates rise, the virus continues to rage around the world where vaccine access has been limited, and emerging viral variants like Delta (B.1.617), first seen in India, are worrisome.
Wachter said there are indications the Delta variant may be more infectious, inflict more severe illness and evade some of the vaccines’ protection. The California Department of Public Health says there have been 286 cases of the Delta variant in the state, far fewer than the 19,753 cases of the Epsilon (B.1.427 and B.1.429) variants that emerged on the West Coast, or the 8,882 cases linked to the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant first seen in the United Kingdom.
About 47% of all Californians are fully vaccinated, but immunization has been uneven across the state. Although 62% of the total population in Santa Clara County, the Bay Area’s largest, are fully vaccinated, that figure drops to 32% in Shasta County, according to the CDC.
“I will want to see what happens with cases and particularly with the Delta variant before I decide whether to be more or less careful,” Wachter said.
Doctors also offer some practical reasons. Dr. Curtis Chan, deputy health officer for San Mateo County, said he’s comfortable now going to eat in restaurants with his family, even though his youngest child isn’t yet old enough to be vaccinated, given the low infection rates and how “extraordinarily effective” the vaccines are.
But Chan said he plans to wait at least another month before dining out more and going into public places like supermarkets without a mask in order to give more people time to get immunized and to put others around him at ease.
“I can’t explain to every person I walk by, ‘I’m vaccinated and I’m a doctor,'” Chan said. “I think it’s reasonable for our family to walk into a supermarket with our masks on. It will reduce the amount of stress families are feeling, particularly families with young children, and older adults.”
Contra Costa County Health Officer Dr. Chris Farnitano is doing likewise, and added that “I am still a big fan of frequent use of hand sanitizer.”
And for some, donning face coverings has become second nature. Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody confessed that although “I actually feel completely safe” without a mask due to low COVID infection rates and the vaccine, “taking the mask off in public feels a little bit impolite.”
Swartzberg pointed out that there are personal benefits in wearing masks indoors around people he doesn’t know are immunized. He hasn’t caught the flu or common cold this past year — and credits the face masks for keeping those seasonal bugs at bay.
“This is the first time in my life I’ve experienced that, and it’s been sweet,” Swartzberg said. “And it’s not like masking is onerous.”
