Some White House officials and reporters tore off their COVID-19 face masks on Thursday after the CDC said people who are vaccinated don’t need to wear them indoors.
The swift adherence to the new medical guidance comes as many Washington residents — including a fully vaccinated President Biden — continue to routinely wear masks outdoors, despite the CDC previously saying that was unnecessary.
A photo tweeted by Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs shows maskless media employees standing immediately outside the White House press briefing room — with one snapping a selfie of himself giving a thumbs up.
“At the White House, some vaccinated staff and reporters are moving about their business, inside and outside, without masks. So nice to see faces,” Jacobs wrote.
Jacobs reported that a White House press aide said over the indoors intercom system, “Masks optional if you’re vaccinated.”
In an email to reporters, the White House Correspondents’ Association said, “Effective immediately, pursuant to the new CDC guidance, mask-wearing requirements are lifted at the White House complex for those who are 14 days after their last required dose of one of the COVID-19 shots.”
The Biden White House has maintained strict limits on the number of reporters who can pass the gates on a given day, and each person must be tested for the virus. Press briefings have had only 14 reporters sitting in 49 available seats, despite widespread vaccination among journalists.
The Trump administration, by contrast, never restricted the number of reporters who could access the White House grounds and only required that they be tested if they were likely to come into close contact with Trump.
The White House lifted indoor mask mandates for reporters who are fully vaccinated. AP/Pool/ABACA Andrew Harnik – PoMasks weren’t immediately embraced by the CDC or top US public health officials last year, despite their widespread early adoption in East Asian countries more familiar with coronaviruses. Then-President Donald Trump hosted daily press conferences in March and April 2020 in a room full of unmasked and largely untested reporters.
Although the Trump administration ultimately required staff and reporters to wear masks indoors last year, that rule wasn’t enforced and masked White House employees were a rare sight in the West Wing. Ultimately, many Trump aides caught the virus, though many younger ones insisted they experienced few if any symptoms.
