CDC explains new mask rules, encourages vaccines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don't need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers.

"There's increasing data that suggests that most of transmission is happening indoors rather than outdoors, less than 10% of documented transmission and many studies have occurred outdoors," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

"The fact that our case rates are now starting to come down, motivated our change in guidance."

Those who are unvaccinated can go outside without masks in some situations, too.

The new guidance represents another carefully calibrated step on the road back to normal from the coronavirus outbreak that has killed over 570,000 people in U.S.

The change comes as more than half of U.S. adults have gotten at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, and more than a third have been fully vaccinated.

But Walensky still reiterated more people need to be vaccinated, and concerns persist about variants and other possible shifts in the epidemic.

"We try to go step by step, but what is it about the situation that makes you hesitant and one of them is, in fact, the speed with which this has happened?" said Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"Vaccine platform technology, which led for the years of work to perfect the MRNA and the vector, such as the adeno-vector approach and secondly, structure-based vaccine design that led to the precise correct confirmation of the spike protein, which proved to be so immunogenic. And in fact, that translated into a highly efficacious vaccine."