When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks indoors again, it did so because it found that vaccines can no longer “prevent transmission.”

In an interview with CNN, CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said vaccines have been effective in preventing death and severe health issues, “but what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission,” the way they did months ago.

This led the CDC to update its mask recommendations on July 27, asking the fully vaccinated Americans to join unvaccinated people in wearing masks indoors as a precaution.

“To maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission,” the CDC says in its most recent guidance.

The CDC also noted that while the vaccines have been ineffective against transmitting the virus, the infection periods are shorter than among those who are unvaccinated.

While masks have not been mandated in the state of California, its public health department also recommended that Californians wear masks indoors.

In Los Angeles County, indoor masking has been a requirement since July 17. The county has seen its COVID-19 hospitalizations more than double in two weeks, with 1,427 recorded as of this writing. At the county’s peak in early January, the county averaged more than 8,000 hospitalizations.

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