Pittsburgh doctor: Masks can go away before 70% Pennsylvanians are vaccinated

PITTSBURGH — Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday that he would lift the mask mandate once 70% of the state was fully vaccinated. However, Infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja thinks the mask mandate can be lifted well before Pennsylvania reaches that threshold.

“The governor saying he will end the mask update at 70% is kind of a carrot stick approach,” Dr. Adalja explained. “The biggest obstacle the United States faces in getting vaccine into arms is not supply, it’s demand.”

As of Wednesday, 42% of people in our state are fully vaccinated and almost 51% have received their first dose. These statistics, Dr. Adalja said, could be close enough to drop the mask mandate based on data from Israel.

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“Israel has vaccinated about 54% of their population. Once they crossed the 40% threshold of fully vaccinated population, is when they started to see a precipitous decline in their cases,” Dr. Adalja said.

He says the hardest part our state is facing is getting people to take the vaccine.

“We have some part of the population who won’t go near that vaccine no matter what. Then there are people on the fence, who have questions, procrastinating, all of that is adding up to a very difficult vaccine roll-out,” Dr. Adalja explained.

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Cox Media Group