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US health officials issued a quarantine guide last week stating that people who get vaccinated do not need to wear masks. However, even after this announcement, there is a response that it is confusing whether it is really okay to use it.
This is Kim Jong-won's correspondent from New York.
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Last week's 11th US Senate hearing,
Rochelle Wallensky Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC director emphasized the need to continue wearing masks.
[Rochelle Wallensky/Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): We must maintain current health guidelines. Because it prevents the virus from spreading. We need to keep wearing masks, hygiene, hand washing and social distancing.]
Two days later, however, the CDC suddenly releases new quarantine guidelines.
[Rochelle Wallensky/Chief Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Anyone who has received both vaccines may take off their masks anywhere indoors or outdoors, whether crowded or small.]
Just two days without prior notice. Amidst chaos amid the mask guidelines that have changed 180 degrees in the first place, the Washington Post today (17th) pointed out that communication between the White House and the CDC was lacking in an article titled ``I made the right decision and handled it incorrectly''.
Unlike Trump, who put political pressure on the CDC in the incident, the Biden administration's distance from CDC policy means that important things, such as the new mask guidelines, were delivered only to the president on the same day.
However, when the atmosphere in the U.S. was messed up due to the oil pipeline hacking incident and inflation issues, there is a controversy over whether the suddenly announced guidelines were intended.
Wallensky said all decisions were based on science, and belatedly evolved the controversy, but confusion is likely to continue for the time being.