The new government guidance that fully vaccinated Americans can return to life without masks marked a turning point for the nation's reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, but it also sparked many questions, including from parents.

Under the new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors, including in crowds.

Left behind from the new recommendation are kids ages under the age of 11 who do not yet qualify for a vaccine.

In the U.S., everyone aged 12 years and older is eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Do kids who are not vaccinated still need to wear face masks?

Yes, according to Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"I'm encouraging all my patients who are 12 and older to get vaccinated, but for younger kids, the current recommendations are, if you're out with your kids in indoor places, they should be wearing masks," Besser said on "Good Morning America."

Vaccine police

“Under current plans, it will be impossible to enforce in most settings,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California San Francisco, told CNBC.

“Businesses, schools and event organizers may still have purview in requiring evidence of vaccination prior to inclusion in specific communities or events, but for other everyday events there will be no enforcement in the way of vaccine passports or QR codes as done in other countries.”

There are some instances where fully vaccinated people still need to wear masks: traveling by plane, bus or train as well as in certain places such as hospitals, nursing homes, prisons or at establishments that require them, the agency said. The CDC’s guidance also isn’t mandatory. States, municipalities and businesses can decide whether or not they want to follow it, increasing confusion for many business owners and employees.

Some health and law experts told CNBC it would further complicate public health efforts to end the pandemic, adding it is “nearly impossible” to police the use of face masks because there is no way to know who is vaccinated and who isn’t. More than half of the population still haven’t gotten the shots, they said, risking more outbreaks from unmasked, unvaccinated individuals.

Story Date: May 16, 2021