The CDC needs to make clear: The problem is the unvaccinated

I think the CDC was trying to convey two messages that got tangled up and lost in translation. The first, which I agree with, was an effort to give a warning to individuals who live with vulnerable people. Here, the science really did change. Vaccinated parents with unvaccinated children should know that we have a higher likelihood of spreading the delta variant to our kids than previous variants. We should wear masks in indoor, public spaces not because we are a risk to strangers around us but because we don’t want to get infected and pass the virus on to our children.

The CDC is also trying to urge localities and businesses to reimplement indoor mask requirements given surging coronavirus infections. That’s the right policy, but it’s using the wrong explanation. The vaccinated are not a major source of spread. Even if every vaccinated person puts on a mask, that’s not going to solve things when the vast majority of transmission is by the unvaccinated.

And that is the actual problem that the CDC is trying to solve: It wants to get the unvaccinated to put on masks in indoor spaces. Without proof of vaccination, the only way to reliably to do this is to ask the vaccinated to also don our masks. Relying on the honor system was a big fail, and the best way to curb the current surge is to get everyone to mask up again.