CDC Director on School Mask Mandates: We Want People 'Protecting Themselves' and 'Reacting to What They're Seeing'

On Friday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen responded to some schools mandating masks by saying that “we want folks to be reacting to what they’re seeing on the ground in their community and making sure that they’re protecting themselves.” She also stated that “masking is one of those solutions that folks could choose to use to protect themselves from this virus. It’s important to know your own risk. Are you around folks who are older or who have underlying conditions? Then we need to use more layers of protection.”

Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “With that recent uptick, there are several school districts that are now requiring masks once again. Is that a good policy? Is that something that should be happening, that we go back to masking at this point?”

Cohen responded, “We’re in a different place than we were before. We’re outside of the emergency, but COVID is still with us. And we know that we have tools to protect us. We’ve been talking about vaccines being one, and I hope everyone gets an updated vaccine. But we have others. Testing, treatment, and other common-sense solutions. And, yes, masking is one of those solutions that folks could choose to use to protect themselves from this virus. It’s important to know your own risk. Are you around folks who are older or who have underlying conditions? Then we need to use more layers of protection. The fact is, we have tools. We need to use them. And we’re going to keep talking about the ways folks can protect themselves.”

Sidner then asked, “Do you think that this is a good recommendation, that schools should be masking now? As I said, there are several schools, I think Maryland one of them, where they’re saying, okay, now you have to mask again.”

Cohen responded, “Well, look, we want folks to be reacting to what they’re seeing on the ground in their community and making sure that they’re protecting themselves. We want folks to know that there are tools that they can use. But there are more things than masks. Remember, ventilation, don’t forget your vaccine, wash your hands, stay home when you’re sick. These are layers of tools that we have right now. And we want to just empower folks to use those tools and support them in any way we can.”

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