Mask FreeIn the U.S., nearly 40% of the population has been fully vaccinated, mostly with mRNA shots, and the number of new cases each day has dropped by more than 85% in the past four months.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month said those who are fully vaccinated can gather without masks or social distancing.“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing things you have stopped doing because of the pandemic," said CDC director Rochelle Walensky, “we have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy."A similar trajectory is evident in Israel, which fully vaccinated nearly 60% of its population with the Pfizer-BioNTech shot and has gradually lifted restrictions as new cases declined to.