In a radio interview on Monday with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on KNX-AM in LA, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci got a bit wistful and started listing off some of the activities he’s most excited about doing again post-pandemic — once coronavirus cases are way down, and once most of us have received the coronavirus vaccine. “I want to see a good movie in a movie theater,” Dr. Fauci mused. ‘And I want to see Hamilton again in the theater, but I also want to go to a ball game.”
Increasingly, we’re seeing this kind of talk — from experts, agencies, ordinary people — about what happens after. About what they want to do post-pandemic. About what they’re able to do, and what is allowed by the public health guidance. Talking about it now is good, because it helps people align their current behaviors toward those objectives, which only serves to hasten the day that we do get to go back to our lives again.
Along these same lines, the CDC on Monday released its much-anticipated and up-to-date guidance on activities and behaviors that people should feel free to engage in once they’ve been fully vaccinated. That’s a category of people, by the way, that’s continuing to grow at a faster clip, with Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker showing that 93.7 million coronavirus vaccine doses have now been administered in the US — at a pace of 2.15 million doses per day now, on average.
At that rate, according to the tracker, the US will have been able to give 75% of the country’s population a two-dose vaccine series between now and September.
Fauci said quite soon the public will see formal recommendations about traveling.
What show or concert is he looking forward to?
“I want to see a good movie in a movie theater and I want to see “Hamilton” again in the theater but I also want to go to a ball game." https://t.co/B2FjcNnmzO
— KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO (@KNX1070) March 9, 2021
During a White House COVID-19 Response Team media briefing on Monday, CDC director Rochelle Walensky explained that: “A growing body of evidence now tells us that there are some activities that fully vaccinated people can resume at low risk to themselves.”
Here’s what the CDC says those people can do safely, once they’ve finished their vaccination series:
- If they happen to become exposed to COVID again, they don’t need to quarantine or get tested — as long as they don’t show any COVID symptoms. However, the existing quarantine measures pre- and post-travel remain, and the CDC is also still recommending against any unnecessary travel right now, as well.
- People who’ve completed their vaccinations and who want to hang out with other fully vaccinated people can do so indoors, without needing to wear a face mask or practice social distancing.
- The same goes with fully vaccinated people visiting unvaccinated people indoors, but again with a big caveat. The unvaccinated people should be at low-risk for COVID, which seems to be not only a reference to healthy people but also healthy people who are taking the necessary precautions. “The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people can visit with unvaccinated people from one other household — indoors, without wearing masks or physical distancing — as long as the unvaccinated people and any unvaccinated members of their household are not at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease,” Walensky said.
