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What does a ‘return to normal’ mean for the immunocompromised?

Many Americans are foregoing masks in public places with COVID restrictions easing, but for the immunocompromised the risk of doing so is much higher.
Many Americans are foregoing masks in public places with COVID restrictions easing, but for the immunocompromised the risk of doing so is much higher.

Most of the country no longer needs to mask up in public, according to the most recent guidance from the CDC. But those loosened restrictions don’t apply to at least 7 million people nationwide who are immunocompromised. Their weakened immune systems put them at much higher risk for severe illness and death from exposure to COVID.

Science reporter Ed Yong wrote more inThe Atlantic.

and some know that they aren’t. Much of the United States dropped COVID restrictions long ago; many more cities and states are now following. That means policies that protected…immunocompromised people, including mask mandates and vaccination requirements, are disappearing, while accommodations that benefited them, such as flexible working options, are being rolled back.

With elected officials advocating a so-called “return to normal,” what does the present and future hold for the immunocompromised? What can we do to protect the most vulnerable?

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Avery Kleinman