• Vaccinated people still seek guidance from officials,
More than 27 million Americans fully vaccinated against the coronavirus will have to keep waiting for guidance from federal health officials for what they should and shouldn’t do.
The Biden administration said Friday it’s focused on getting the guidance right and accommodating emerging science, but the delays add to the uncertainty around bringing about an end to the pandemic as the nation’s yearlong virus fatigue grows.
“These are complex issues, and the science is rapidly evolving,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday. “We are making sure and taking time to get this right, and we will be releasing this guidance soon.”
Such guidance would address a flood of questions coming in from people who have been fully vaccinated: Do I still have to wear a mask? Can I go to a bar now? Can I finally see my grandchildren?
The need has slowly grown since January, when the first Americans began to complete the two-dose series of COVID-19 vaccines then available. Now, more than half of people 65 and older have received at least one shot, according to Andy Slavitt, a senior administration adviser on the pandemic.
Washington state resident Raul Espinoza Gomez has 22 grandchildren and greatgrandchildren — and an
appointment this weekend for his second dose of the vaccine.
By Easter, the 77-year-old’s immune system will be ready to protect him from the virus. But how his family celebrates will depend on government advice, said his daughter-inlaw Melissa Espinoza, 47, of Carnation, Wash., who plans to drive her father-in-law to get his second shot.
“We didn’t gather together as a big family at Christmas,” she said. “We go by what the state and federal guidelines recommend. We’ve had family members adversely affected by COVID. We know the risks are severe.”
Worried about persistently high case loads and deaths, the Biden administration has condemned efforts to relax states’ virus restrictions and pleaded with the public for several months more patience.
The caution has drawn critics, who point to the administration’s own warnings that “fatigue is winning” as evidence that they need to be more optimistic about the path ahead to secure the cooperation of those who are yet to be vaccinated.
“I think it’s going to be overly proscriptive and conservative, and that’s the wrong message,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday of the forthcoming CDC guidance. “If we continue to be very proscriptive and not give people a realistic vision for what a better future is going to look like, they’re going to start to ignore the public health guidance.”
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the Division of Health
Policy and Public Health, encouraged the CDC to be clearer about when and how it plans to produce guidelines for the vaccinated.
“Making the decision to go by the science is also making the decision that you’re going to have to make a decision, which is really difficult when the science isn’t settled,” he said. “They’re drinking from a firehose of science, and sometimes it gets messy.”
More than 54 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine, and slightly more than half — nearly 28 million — have gotten the recommended two doses. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot soon will add a few million more Americans with questions about what new freedoms they can safely enjoy.
“I do hope I get to see my great-grandchildren more,” said Rolando Solar, 92, who received his second dose in Miami on Wednesday. “But I know things will not go back to normal, and for an old man like me, this is as good as it will be.”
Tami Katz-Freiman, 65, of Miami, got her second dose three weeks ago and plans to watch the Miami Film Festival virtually Sunday at the home of some of her unvaccinated friends. All will wear masks.
“We didn’t have to discuss it with each other, because it’s very clear to me that when there is a doubt and you don’t have a CDC straightforward rule, you better be on the safe side and take care for yourself,” Ms. Katz-Freiman said.