{"id":3284,"date":"2022-02-06T18:39:35","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T02:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=3284"},"modified":"2022-02-07T08:30:59","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T16:30:59","slug":"experts-open-door-to-lifting-mask-mandates-the-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2022\/02\/06\/experts-open-door-to-lifting-mask-mandates-the-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Open Door to Lifting Mask Mandates – The Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY\u00a0PETER SULLIVAN<\/a>\u00a0-\u00a002\/06\/22 06:39 PM EST<\/span><\/span><\/pre>\n
As the spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant wanes, some experts say it is time to start lifting more restrictions, setting up a heated debate, particularly over mask mandates in schools.<\/div>\n
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People are exhausted with the pandemic after roughly two years, and health advocates warn that pandemic rules cannot last forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot remain in a perpetual state of emergency,\u201d said\u00a0Leana Wen<\/a>, a public health professor at George Washington University. \u201cPeople burn out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many aspects of life have already returned to something like normal. Bars and restaurants are open and packed across the country, and countless travel restrictions have been lifted.<\/p>\n
But some locations, including New York and Washington, D.C., still have mask mandates for the general public, and in schools, mask requirements are more common.<\/p>\n
Vaccinations remain as the key source of protection. People who are vaccinated and boosted have strong protection against severe disease, even if there is still a chance they get mild illness.<\/p>\n
Wen noted that school-age children 5 and up can now all be vaccinated.<\/p>\n
And Pfizer last week\u00a0began the application<\/a>\u00a0for its COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as six months.<\/p>\n
Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that restrictions in general should be lifted as cases come down, but not just yet, given that cases are still high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been saying for weeks that as cases recede we can soon relax public health restrictions,\u201d Jha tweeted. \u201cI think of this like the weather. When it is bucketing rain umbrella, rain coat, boots, are all essential. When the storm turns into a drizzle, those become less critical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The possibility of a future variant that has greater ability to evade the vaccines\u2019 protection, or that causes more severe disease, leads some experts to call for loosening restrictions during the coming lull to give people a respite in case they need to return later.<\/p>\n
“If we don\u2019t take the off-ramps, nobody will listen when we need to have an on-ramp,” tweeted Jeremy Faust, a professor at Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n
Cases in the U.S. have fallen significantly from the peak during the omicron wave in mid-January, from approximately 800,000 new cases per day to about 350,000 per day, which is still quite high. More experts are putting a focus on hospitalizations, which have now peaked nationally, though again are still at the high level of around 123,000 a day, according to a New York Times tracker.<\/p>\n
Asked about people returning to more normal activities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director\u00a0Rochelle Walensky<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on Wednesday cautioned that hospitalizations \u201care still quite high and [we are] certainly having hospital capacity challenges in many parts of the country still.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really do have to look to our hospitalization rates and our death rates to look to when it is time to lift some of these mitigation efforts,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will continue to reevaluate, and we know people are anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The matter of lifting restrictions has received a new burst of political attention as Republicans push to scale back measures such as mask mandates.<\/p>\n
Virginia\u2019s new Republican governor,\u00a0Glenn Youngkin<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0has drawn controversy<\/a>\u00a0and an American Civil Liberties Union-backed lawsuit from parents over an order making masks optional in schools in the state.<\/p>\n
Senate Minority Leader\u00a0Mitch McConnell<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Ky.) more broadly said Wednesday that \u201cit is time for the state of emergency to wind down.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Democratic side, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock this week lifted the city\u2019s mask mandate and proof of vaccination requirement for businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis virus is something we’re going to have to manage and learn to live with,\u201d Hancock said.<\/p>\n
A Monmouth University\u00a0poll this week found<\/a>\u00a0that a large majority of Americans, 70 percent, agreed that \u201cit\u2019s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republicans continue to fight hard against\u00a0President Biden<\/a><\/span>\u2019s vaccine mandates, which many public health experts have praised as a crucial way to get more people vaccinated and help return to normal.<\/p>\n
Advocates have also been pushing the Biden administration and Congress for more funding for global vaccination efforts, which can help prevent new variants from emerging.<\/p>\n
Some experts are pushing back against the calls for returning to normal, pointing to more vulnerable people.<\/pre>\n
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