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Doctors say vaccinated people are safer from COVID than before

"Before we were wearing a mask to protect each other. Now, if you've been vaccinated you're wearing a mask to be polite," says Dr. Jeff Warren.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — New guidance on mask wearing has a lot of folks confused.

From restaurants to big box stores and even the sidewalks in between businesses must now decide for themselves whether to require customers and employees wear masks.. 

Doctors say if you're vaccinated wearing a mask is even safer than first thought.

"Before we were wearing a mask to protect each other. Now, if you've been vaccinated you're wearing a mask to be polite," said Memphis City Councilman Dr. Jeff Warren.

As new loosened mask mandates were announced from the Center for Disease Control followed by many cities across the country, Warren says he still encourages mask wearing. 

CDC Director Rochelle Wallensky agrees you have less to worry about when it comes to not wearing masks.

"If they're vaccinate, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated, they are not safe. They should still wear mask, or better yet, get vaccinated. We also need to say that this is not permission for widespread removal of mask," said Wallensky.

After more than a year of studying COVID-19 doctors are learning more about it and the science shows it is very rare for an infected person to transmit COVID to a vaccinated person, but with only 123-million Americans and 37-percent of the U.S. population fully vaccinated safety could be compromised if we let our guards down.

"There a lot of people in my home state and states across America that have not yet been fully vaccinated, that are still in the process and I think we should wear masks for them," said Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University School of Public Health.

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