Host Trevor Noah said on Tuesday’s episode of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” that the new CDC guidelines for outdoor mask use were so “incoherent” it could discourage people from getting vaccinated.
Earlier in the day, the CDC announced that vaccinated people could go maskless during outdoor activities that are not in a crowd.
Noah said, “I’m excited that life is slowly getting back to normal but what doesn’t excite me is the messaging from the CDC. In fact, it’s made me so mad. The only way I can express myself is in a viral rant. Okay, now, look, people, I know science is difficult, and this is a novel virus and all of that, but who is running messaging at the CDC? First, they said masks make us less safe. Don’t wear a mask. Then they said masks make us more safe. And now, according to this new chart, masks can make you not safe again? In fact, this whole chart is trash. Yeah, I said it.”
He continued, “The whole thing is too complicated. I have to sit here trying to interpret reds and yellows and greens, and outdoor/indoor, partial indoor, outdoor with the people who might be vaccinated, partially vaccinated. The whole thing is unreadable.”
Noah added, “The really frustrating thing is that they’ve spent months, they’ve spent 5 months telling us to get vaccinated. ‘Oh, get vaccinated, and this will all be over. Get vaccinated!’ And I was like, ‘great. I’ll get all the four vaccines if it means I’ll get my life back. Now they’re putting out a chart that says even if you get vaccinated, you can only do two more things without a mask on? Two? Guys, what the hell? The shit you’re saying to people is incoherent. You’re telling us these new vaccines are 95% effective and will stop coronavirus, but we still can’t do anything without a mask on anyway? Which is it? Is this one of the most effective vaccines in the history of the world, or does it not work? It’s not clear messaging. Especially if you’re desperately trying to convince people to get the vaccine.”
He concluded, “I know the CDC is just trying to cover all the bases because maybe there’s a tiny chance you could get corona even if you’re vaccinated. But if that messaging ends up convincing people that there’s not much of a reason to get vaccinated at all, then we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Which is not something we should do.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN