Campus News

Why indoor masking for all makes sense

Masked students in a classroom.

UB now requires that all persons, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors and unvaccinated individuals mask up outdoors.

UBNOW STAFF

Published August 6, 2021

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“In my mind, the most important reason to use masks is to make sure that the unvaccinated people are using masks when they should be. ”
Thomas Russo, chief
Division of Infectious Diseases

Mask mandates have returned in many places, including here at UB, where the policy recently changed to require that all persons, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors and unvaccinated individuals mask up outdoors.

Many people, especially those who are fully vaccinated, have been wondering why. To help explain, UBNow turned to Thomas Russo, chief of infectious diseases at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and a trusted expert who’s been quoted extensively in media outlets around the globe since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

First thing’s first: Why did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that all people, regardless of vaccination status, mask up indoors, and why did UB and many other places follow suit?

The answer, Russo explains, is because COVID-19 cases are surging in many places across the country due to the highly contagious and much more transmissible delta variant. And the surge is happening largely because unvaccinated people aren’t wearing masks and preventing the spread of the virus.

“In my mind, the most important reason to use masks is to make sure that the unvaccinated people are using masks when they should be,” he says. The use of the honor system by the unvaccinated to use masks when appropriate has been imperfect.

“At the end of the day,” Russo continues, “this surge is primarily about the unvaccinated. And the greatest risk is the unvaccinated individuals transmitting it to other unvaccinated individuals, which account for the overwhelming majority of cases.”

But there are risks to vaccinated people, too. As good as our vaccines are, they are not perfect, Russo notes. Breakthrough cases can occur in the fully vaccinated, but, fortunately, they are usually mild or asymptomatic, and rarely result in hospitalization or death. However, recent data from the CDC supports that fully vaccinated individuals with symptomatic infection can transmit the delta variant, most likely to the unvaccinated, and perhaps fully vaccinated individuals can be infectious if infected but asymptomatic.

For these reasons, and given the present community burden of disease in our area, UB decided to change its masking policy in line with the CDC’s recommendation.

This pandemic will end when everyone is either vaccinated or, unfortunately, gets infected, Russo says, and that’s why he hopes that mask mandates will serve as a bridge to encouraging people to get vaccinated. If someone gets infected, all bets are off with regards to short-term and long-term consequences.

“There isn’t going to be such a thing as herd immunity where the virus magically disappears,” he adds. “There’s going to be two groups of people: people that got vaccinated and didn't get infected, and people that got infected. To avoid infection, your best strategy is to get vaccinated.”

UB continues to urge students and employees to get vaccinated before the start of the fall semester. A large percentage of both already have, and the trends are looking good for having the vast majority of people on campus vaccinated.

READER COMMENTS

Very disappointing. I understand no vaccination is ever perfect, but if fully vaccinated, we should not be penalized and have to wear a mask to protect someone that will not take the step to protect themselves — meaning they do not get vaccinated and then choose not to wear a mask.

Joyce Weeman

While understandable, this new mandate on mask-wearing is of course disheartening to students who hoped to start college with a degree of normalcy. What must happen for the mask mandate to be lifted?

Jocelyn Wilson

If the masking policy is to make sure unvaccinated students are wearing their masks, if it does become mandatory to receive the vaccine to return to campus, does that mean the mask mandate will be lifted?

Nicole Castoro

I think at the end of the day, the only two groups of people that will exist are those who got infected and those who don't get infected

This will be regardless of vaccination status.

Akinsola Oyelakin