The CDC's decision Tuesday to reverse course and urge even fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks indoors in areas of high coronavirus transmission isn't likely to crush community spread, experts say – but it might ratchet up pressure on the unvaccinated and encourage businesses and schools to implement mask mandates.

According to the new science, she said, fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infections from the delta variant have a similar viral load to infections in unvaccinated people.

That means the fully vaccinated are more likely to spread the virus with the delta variant than the original coronavirus. .

The goal behind the guidance may be to protect both the fully vaccinated and the unvaccinated, health experts say, especially vaccinated people who may be immunocompromised and children under 12 who aren’t yet eligible to get their shot.

But the reality is there’s hardly any transmission among fully vaccinated people to truly affect community spread, they say.

… We have good data that vaccinated people don’t spread COVID as efficiently as unvaccinated people,” Dr.

Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief COVID-19 medical adviser, said the agency was reexamining mask recommendations amid surging cases triggered by the highly transmissible delta variant.

Health experts urge fully vaccinated people to consult their local health department websites for mask guidance and vaccination rates.