The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new mask guidance is spurring confusion and backlash as the country tries to respond to the shifting threat of the delta variant. ADVERTISEMENTThe CDC, though, only makes recommendations, and it is up to state and local officials to impose mask requirements. Washington, D.C., with eight new cases per day per 100,000 people, is reimposing an indoor mask mandate. Springfield Mayor Ken McClure told the Springfield News Leader that a mask mandate would only discourage people from getting vaccinated. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this month using data from the United Kingdom found that the Pfizer vaccine is 88 percent effective against the delta variant.
