Yahoo News: Did we declare victory too soon?

Leana Wen: The single biggest mistake that the Biden administration made during this entire pandemic response — and I would argue in the entire Biden presidency — was back in May when the CDC said that vaccinated people can take off their mask, but did not have proof of vaccination attached to it. And as a result, people understood the pandemic to be over them. The unvaccinated began behaving like they were vaccinated.

And what did we see? We saw exactly what I and many public health experts predicted at the time. The honor code did not work. Surges have happened because of unvaccinated individuals. Now with the Delta variant, restrictions are coming back, except nobody’s listening anymore.

President Biden absolutely declared a victory too soon. That said, I also do want to commend the Biden administration for a lot of their efforts. I mean, they have been exceptional in ensuring vaccine supply and increasing distribution.