Ricketts Opposes Return To Masks Indoors For The Already Vaccinated

     The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that even fully vaccinated individuals resume wearing masks indoors in parts of the country where COVID-19 is surging, but Gov Pete RIcketts says it’s not going to happen in Nebraska.

      Ricketts issued a statement saying the new recommendation “flies in the face of the public health goals that should guide the agency’s decision making (and) only furthers the distrust many have with the CDC

      The federal agency is recommending that while schools should return to full-time, in-person learning in the fall, everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask indoors, including teachers, staff, students and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

      That’s another non-starter for Ricketts, who says his expectations for schools and universities in the fall remain that they open in person without mask or vaccine requirements.

       Ricketts says that “Nebraskans exercise personal responsibility for their own health and…it’s time for the CDC and the government to get out of the way and stop trying to tell people how to live their lives.”

      The governor does encourage everyone to have a conversation with their doctor about the vaccine, saying such conversations are important because the coronavirus will be with us forever.  

     The new CDC recommendation comes just two months after officials said masks were no longer needed indoors for the vaccinated, but that was before the highly contagious delta variant became the dominant strain across the country.