It's time to lose the mask outside.

If you are fully vaccinated and want to attend a small outdoor gathering with people who

are vaccinated and unvaccinated or dying at an outdoor restaurant with friends from

multiple households, the science shows if you're vaccinated, you can do so safely unmasked.

Fully vaccinated means two weeks past your second shot, CDC director Ryszelle Wollenski

said on Tuesday or two weeks after your single shot of Jane J.

Today is another day we can take a step back to the normal state of before.

Of course in many places Americans have already taken that step indoors and out.

In almost half the country there's no statewide mask mandate right now.

And yet even with more transmissible variant circulating, new cases in the US have fallen

21% in recent days. An average of 650 people each day are dying from the virus.

A number that represents a tragic loss of life, but that is thankfully far lower than

it's been in months.

Each day more and more Americans are rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated and

likely contributing to these very positive trends.

The vaccines aren't perfect and with only 30% of US adults fully immunized.

The recommendation is still for people to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor places

like a concert or a baseball game.

As we get more and more people vaccinated and the level of infection gets lower and lower,

you're going to see more flexibility in what people who have vaccinated can do.

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke to NPR on Tuesday and hopefully that will encourage more people

to get vaccinated so that they can have this flexibility.

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