Professor Lewis Nelson, chair of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is available to discuss expected new rules from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on mask-wearing as COVID-19 cases surge nationwide.
“The CDC is doing the responsible thing by altering their recommendations as we’ve seen rising infection rates across the country given the consequences of the new Delta variant and other emerging variants,” said Nelson. “It is critical that we reduce transmission among those who are not vaccinated through the primary mechanism of mask-wearing unless this population is willing to become vaccinated.
“We must note that when the CDC initially recommended that vaccinated people stop wearing masks indoors, they were clear that those who are unvaccinated or who have not developed natural immunity from previous infection with the virus should continue to wear masks. And although the current spike in COVID-19 cases is primarily in unvaccinated people, we cannot differentiate those who are vaccinated from those who are not. Therefore, all people, immune or not, should wear masks when they are in areas with high viral transmission. The slight increase in Covid infections among vaccinated populations, while generally fairly mild, further supports this recommendation.”
To interview Nelson, contact Maud Alobawone at modesta.alobawone@rutgers.edu or 848-445-1913.
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