The United States' daily COVID-19 infection rate has once again surpassed 124,000, eclipsing numbers not seen since February 2021. Though numbers are lower in areas with high vaccination rates, like the Bay Area, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended that everyone – even the fully vaccinated – resume wearing masks in indoor settings.
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The new recommendation and surge in cases come largely due to the Delta variant of COVID-19. It' both more resistant to the vaccine than any variation of the virus and at least twice as contagious in normal circumstances. While the unvaccinated are at the greatest risk of illness and death, vaccinated individuals can help slow the spread and save lives by wearing properly fitting respirators and masks.
Some vaccinated people may wonder why they should worry, since this current wave is overwhelmingly infecting the unvaccinated. But vaccinated individuals can still contract and spread the virus; last year, Harvard Medicine estimated that more than half of all new cases were spread by people who did not realize they were infected. Further spread means further suffering, of course, but it also provides further opportunities for the virus to mutate.
Despite being more contagious, and often more severe, the Delta variant is still a variant of the same virus that has slowed the world since early 2020, and the CDC’s recommendations regarding masks have not changed significantly since the last surge. NIOSH N95 respirator masks are still considered the gold standard of safety, followed by KN95 masks made by manufacturers on the CDC’s whitelist. Surgical masks trail N95s and KN95s, and cloth masks fall far behind those (cloth masks, at this point, are a “better than nothing” option).
Masks are, of course, no substitute for the vaccine, which is still considered the best option for preventing the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives.