Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Tuesday slammed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for recently “updating” its guidelines on masks.
Earlier this week, the agency changed its policy to recommend that some vaccinated individuals resume wearing masks in certain situations. Additionally, the group suggested that all K-12 students continue to wear masks when returning to the classroom this fall.
“The CDC today is recommending that we wear masks in school and indoors, regardless of our vaccination status. This is just another example of the Biden-Harris administration’s inability to effectively confront the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ducey said in a statement.
Previously, the government agency promised Americans that getting vaccinated would allow them to return to a more “normal” lifestyle — including not wearing a mask. However, after only two months, this decision quickly reverses its pledge.
“Arizona does not allow mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports or discrimination in schools based on who is or isn’t vaccinated. We’ve passed all of this into law, and it will not change,” Ducey pledged in his statement.
While the CDC updated their recommendations, numerous studies demonstrate that the risk of transmitting COVID-19 for students during in-person learning is low.
The Arizona governor also explained that the new suggestions will likely reduce faith in the coronavirus vaccine.
“Public health officials in Arizona and across the country have made it clear that the best protection against COVID-19 is the vaccine. Today’s announcement by the CDC will unfortunately only diminish confidence in the vaccine and create more challenges for public health officials 一 people who have worked tirelessly to increase vaccination rate,” Ducey explained while encouraging the state’s residents to get vaccinated.
Furthermore, Ducey committed to “continue to work to distribute this vaccine to Arizonans and build public confidence in its effectiveness, despite this unnecessary and unhelpful ‘guidance’ from Washington, D.C.”
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
