ST. LOUIS — As more Americans get a COVID-19 vaccine, President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control when it comes to wearing masks outdoors.
No one knows exactly what the changes are, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the administration's top coronavirus advisers, hinted on national television that the CDC will be coming out with new guidelines very soon concerning what people who are vaccinated can do and even some who are not vaccinated.
"I think it does make sense for them to revise the actual guidelines," said Dr. Farrin Manian, an internal specialist at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis. "I'm not sure what they will say, but they may have a different set of recommendations for people who are fully vaccinated and fully immunized versus those who are not."
Despite the upcoming announcement, the situation is already playing out in outdoor spaces like community parks.
David Williams brought his two young kids to Millennium Park in Creve Coeur, and he did not wear a mask. He said he typically wears a mask indoors and at places that require masks, but if he's outdoors and social distancing, he does not want to wear it anymore.
"I'm vaccinated," said Williams. "I'm taking a risk, but I figure I'm taking appropriate measures as well."
Across the park, Dan Bostelmann kept his mask on as he was playing with his 8-year-old daughter.
"In general most of the parents that are sitting at this park are wearing a mask," he said. "I'm more than happy to join them."
Still, Bostelmann said he would welcome new CDC guidelines.
"For outdoors, at a park, and if you're not all huddled together, then I'm all for taking it off," said Bostelmann, who works as a teacher and says he hears his students talk way too much about social gatherings. He likes feeling safe.
A November 2020 review in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found the odds of viral transmission are nearly 19 times greater indoors than outside. It also found that less than 10 percent of Covid-19 infections studied came from the outdoors, though several states still mandate masks outdoors.