CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead” that he recommended people continue to wear a mask in crowded indoor settings.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Hawaii just announced it is dropping its mask mandate, becoming the last state in the United States to do so. The CDC says 90% of people in the U.S. can take their masks off now. Who should still be wearing a mask and where?”
Reiner said, “I think a lot of people should be wearing masks in crowds. I’ll still wear a mask in a crowd, and I’m not in a particularly high-risk.”
Tapper said, “Outdoors too?”
Reiner said, “Outdoors less so. If you’re going to be in a crowded outdoor space, sure. I would leave a mask on. I don’t think a mask is a big burden. When I wear a mask, I’m not just protecting myself. I’m protecting the person next to me who might really be vulnerable. While you’re right, the cases have dropped 95% over the last two months, that is, from an unbelievably high number of cases. We drop from about a million reported cases, maybe severalfold higher than that, including the home self-tests, down to a little less than 50,000 cases per day. Fifty thousand cases per day is still not an insignificant amount.”
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