New CDC Guidance Ends Masks Outdoors & Uncrowded Indoor Settings for Vaccinated!
New face mask guidance from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the latest set of recommendations for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people. In this post, we’ll take a look at the updated May 13, 2021 guidelines, plus what this could mean for Walt Disney World.
This comes two weeks after the last update for fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people. In case you missed it, we covered that in New CDC Mask Guidance Won’t Impact Walt Disney World. The title there really says it all—those new guidelines didn’t have any impact on theme parks because they fall under the category of crowded settings.
More locally, it also follows Orange County’s three-phased plan to end health safety mandates. While Central Florida theme parks have not yet acted on the new CDC guidance, both Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World have both since followed suit and reduced physical distancing in the parks. That’s just the latest of many changes on the health safety protocol front in recent weeks at Walt Disney World. Temperature checks are going away soon thanks to guidance from Orange County and the State of Florida.
The May 2021 update from the CDC comes as the vaccination campaign begins to pay off for the United States both in terms of the number of fully vaccinated individuals and other metrics. Daily cases are down 30% in the last two weeks, to their lowest level since last September, deaths are at their lowest point since last April, and the test positivity rate is at the lowest point since the pandemic began.
Approximately 154 million Americans, which is roughly 46% of the population, have received at least one dose of the vaccines and more than 117 million are fully vaccinated. The pace of new vaccinations slowed in the last few weeks, plateauing more recently. However, the authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents ages 12 to 15 should provide a new spike of demand for the next few weeks.
For all of these reasons, the CDC has issued new guidance that allows fully vaccinated individuals to safely stop wearing masks outdoors and indoors in most places CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced.
“We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” Walensky said during a media briefing Thursday. “Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines, and our understanding of how the virus spreads,” she said. “That moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated.”
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Walensky said. “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities – large or small – without wearing a mask or physically distancing.”
This could ease restrictions for reopening workplaces, schools, and other venues as it would remove the need for masks or physical distancing for those who are fully vaccinated.
The CDC also no longer recommends that fully vaccinated people wear masks outdoors in crowds.
With that said, the new CDC guidance does still call for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like public transportation, planes, hospitals, airports, and other settings–which unquestionably includes Walt Disney World.
These changes also come as a growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the vaccines prevent asymptomatic infections, and by extension, transmission to others. Evidence from real world studies in the U.S. and Israel shows the vaccines are as strongly protective in real-world use as they were in earlier studies, and the vaccines continue to work even as variants are spreading.
There have been breakthrough infections among vaccinated people in the United States, a small number among more than 117 million people in the United States who are now fully vaccinated. However, the resulting infection is more likely to have a lower viral load, be shorter in duration, and far lower likelihood of transmission to others. The risk of hospitalization or death from infection is virtually nonexistent for the fully vaccinated.
In our commentary to the CDC’s update two weeks ago, we expressed some disappointment about the “slow roll” on rule relaxation, which didn’t go as far as we would’ve liked. At the time, we doubted that it would help with the stated goal of incentivizing vaccine uptake since it still recommended fully vaccinated individuals wear masks even in low-risk scenarios.
By contrast, our view is that this is a hugely positive update from the CDC. It offers a high degree of normalcy for the fully vaccinated, which has a solid foundation in current science. Equally as significant, it comports with public expectations and doesn’t put the CDC out of step with actual behavior.
It’s worth noting that CDC guidance is just that–guidance. Except for in some settings, it doesn’t make rules or law, it just offers recommendations to states, localities, and businesses.
In other words, private businesses can still operate with any self-imposed restrictions. That means Walt Disney World, Universal, Trader Joe’s, or any other business can still require masks for entry and kick out anyone not adhering to their rules. This really isn’t anything new or novel. Those same businesses could deny entry to potential patrons not wearing shirts or shoes, despite there being no guidance or law requiring either of those articles of clothing, either.
With that said, CDC guidance is significant with regard to Walt Disney World because the company has relied upon CDC recommendations when creating or modifying its rules. As we’ve stated previously, any new CDC guidance has the potential to be a game-changer for Walt Disney World.
However, that’s only the case when the recommendations apply to both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. This is because Disney does not, and will not, distinguish between the two.
In practice, this comes down to logistics. Having two classes of guests that would be a nightmare scenario for enforcement, and overly burdensome to frontline Cast Members. Walt Disney World already has significant issues with employee morale and turnover as a result of enforcing face mask rules; that would only worsen if Cast Members were tasked with determining who is “eligible” to go mask-less in the parks.
Even if the company wanted to do so (and there’s ample evidence it does not), it’s simply not practical. There’s no sense in debating this–it’s a non starter. However, it is always possible that Disney could take a hands-off approach either to the rule or enforcement. That’s already started to occur with physical distancing, and it’s probably not too far off with face masks. Having Cast Members continue to police that when fewer society-wide rules in place is going to be increasingly less viable.
Ultimately, we’re not anticipating an immediate face mask rule relaxation from Walt Disney World as a result of the new CDC guidance. Other businesses will probably drop their mask policies and leave it up to the individual to make personal risk assessments and mitigation, but not Disney–at least, not in the immediate future.
Just last week, Walt Disney World hinted that face masks might be required until at least November 2021. While we also do not think that’ll end up being the case, Disney will probably be a bit more slow-moving and conservative in making changes. CDC guidance, local mandates, and rules established by businesses will continue to evolve.
With that said, our expectation is still that Walt Disney World will continue to relax its health safety protocol over the coming months, especially as case numbers continue dropping and vaccinations continue climbing. As the former continues to fall and the latter rises, we can expect more changes and normalcy returning. In such a scenario, the overall risk drops for everyone, even the unvaccinated. With the company’s earnings call happening later today, our hope and expectation is that Disney will at least hint at its future plans in terms of health safety protocol this summer and beyond. We’ll keep you posted on that–and send out an update to subscribers of our free email newsletter tonight!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the CDC recommending that anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing? Do you view that move as a net positive or negative in returning to normal? Are you hoping that Disney follows suit, or keeps its mask rules in place longer? Please keep the comments civil. This is not the place for arguing about efficacy, politics, and so forth—all such comments will be deleted, irrespective of perspective. You are not going to change anyone’s mind via the comments section on this blog, nor are you going to change Disney’s rules or public policy. If you wish to contest this, rather than yelling into the internet abyss, have your voice heard in a meaningful way by contacting Disney or your local elected officials.
Hershey Park announced that masks are not required for those vaccinated. Hoping other parks will soon follow.
Il faut de la patience….. Je pense aux guests qui le porte toute la journée Á WDW, sous la forte chaleur que vous avez !!! Ça doit être dur pour eux. En France, la vaccination s’accélère mais reste ouverte aux personnes de plus de 50 ans. Nous ne savons pas quand nos parcs ouvriront……… Beaucoup beaucoup de patience !!!
The vaccinated part is funny, because no one will know who is and who is not.
@Megan – you’ve made such an important point! A lot of Disney guests are still to young to be vaccinated, even with the expansion to allow 12+, and while young children are less likely to experience severe illness, it does happen. I teach high school, and I’ve already had two students (in my small, rural Maine district) that have needed to be hospitalized with it, and one is still experiencing long hauler symptoms. I understand that these new guidelines make sense based on the data, but using them for public policy with the assumption that members of the public will behave honestly seems overly optimistic based on what we’ve seen so far.
While there is no data yet on how long natural immunity or vaccine immunity lasts, my personal experience with natural immunity is pretty optimistic. We had covid in January 2020. We were antibody tested just over 6 months later and it was negative. Not surprising. However, we have been antibody tested every 2 months since and have remained negative so we haven’t gotten covid again. We really didn’t alter much in our lives except wearing masks inside if mandated, so I’d say we were pretty high risk tolerant. We seem to have pretty darn good immunity so I agree, those who have had it and recovered should count towards herd immunity!
In my part of the country, I was easily able to schedule a Covid vaccine the same day for my 2 kids that are 12 and 15. How lucky I am to be living in the United States where we have that privilege. Covid numbers are decreasing and the vaccine is readily available to anyone that wants it age 12 and up. At some point, those that aren’t vaccinated will either assume the risk or stay at home. Let the rest of us get on with our lives without a mask, especially outdoors. I am planning a trip for August and hope for the mask rule to be relaxed outdoors by that time.
@ mrnico
I agree with you. This is a choice. I was simply stating that getting the virus puts some into a holding position.
“Personally, I don’t really care whether someone else wears a mask or not. It impacts me in no way as someone who is fully vaccinated.”
Here is where I think we have forgotten a population of people – children under 12 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. I do not have faith that all unvaccinated people will mask and while my husband and I are fully vaccinated, it does impact our 10 year old. She will continue to wear a mask (as will we in solidarity with her), but it makes moving through society that much more cumbersome. We are choosing not to travel at this time since she cannot be vaccinated yet, but simple things like going to the library now present a larger complication. I understand the reason for the incentive and if we could trust everyone, I think that is great. However, given the current environment, I’m not sure that anyone is considering the under 12 set.
Mickey1928
You’re absolutely right. There are lots who have been vaccinated and lots with natural immunity. We are slowly getting there.
God bless.
I’m already beginning to miss those “good old days” when everyone wore masks and were afraid of anyone coming within 6 feet.
Today when Carolyn returned home from school she told me that from now on anyone vaccinated will not have to wear a mask at school. And this is in NYS just outside the city but still in horse farm country.
I suspect several things have moved the CDC to todays announcement. This weeks NY Times article stating the CDC was a bit disingenuous when it reported the risk of catching covid was under 10% when it was really very close to zero.
Plus realizing that the best way to get folks to vaccinate is to give them the good news they won’t need to wear the masks outdoors or in sparsely populated indoor settings.
I think masks will be something that some will continue no matter what and good for them if that makes them feel safer.
Another factor has to be that at one point it was thought that 30 million Americans had had covid and now had natural immunity. Every one I know who falls in that category was told by their doctor not to get the vaccine right now. Add that 30 million (which has to be higher by now ) to those already vaccinated and you’ve got a lot of folks covered and close to herd immunity.
I still stand by my early prediction of no masks outdoors no later than October 1st.
“This weeks NY Times article stating the CDC was a bit disingenuous when it reported the risk of catching covid was under 10% when it was really very close to zero.”
I agree that this played a big role. The CDC got hit hard on that by some otherwise ‘sympathetic’ voices in the media, and there has been increased scrutiny in all directions over their overly cautious approach. (Trying to keep this as apolitical as possible, but I think we can all acknowledge, at minimum, that media bias exists in different outlets to varying degrees and directions.)
Ending the mandate outdoors will be good enough for me. 75% of my time at WDW is outdoors, and that’s also where masks are least comfortable, so that’s a total game changer. Great news for the cast too – often felt sorry for them wearing them all day.
My next visit will be as a vaccinated guest – can’t wait!