Businesses large and small are grappling with how to adapt to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s surprise guidance on Thursday that Americans who are vaccinated against COVID-19 can hang up their masks.
The CDC’s announcement that people who are fully vaccinated can go maskless indoors is leaving companies to scramble over how to align the new recommendations with their own safety practices, including whether to treat inoculated customers and employees differently from people who have yet to get their shots.
A number of the nation’s largest retailers said they have no immediate plans to change their policies and would continue requiring both customers and workers to wear masks while on the premises. Other businesses said they’re re-evaluating their protocols.
No mask, no service
Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain, said the company would still require everyone in its stores to wear masks and continue to encourage social distancing. The company also said it is reviewing the CDC’s latest guidance to develop “the next phase of our policy.”
Retailers Home Depot and Target also said they would maintain their coronavirus policies for now, including requiring customers and workers to wear masks as well as require social distancing.
“Target will continue to require all of our coronavirus safety measures in all stores, including masks and social distancing, while we review today’s guidance from the CDC and re-evaluate the guidance we offer our team and guests,” a spokesperson said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Macy’s, Starbucks and other major retailers are also weighing the guidance before ditching their mask requirements.
The decision by some businesses to continue enforcing their mask policy is understandable given the ongoing health risks and public sensitivities about getting vaccinated, said Helen Rella, an employment and labor attorney at Wilk Auslander.
“Unfortunately, in retail settings that are open to the public, there is no way to determine if patrons are vaccinated short of asking for proof prior to entry, which is not likely to happen,” she said.
Roughy 36% of people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated and have received CDC-issued vaccine cards as proof. But scammers have seized the opportunity to forge the low-tech cards, as well as sell stolen authentic cards to unvaccinated individuals.
“Very big news” for Disney
Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek celebrated the CDC’s new guidance and said he expects it to have an immediate effect on business.
The health agency’s revised guidelines are “very big news for us, particularly if anybody’s been in Florida in the middle of the summer with a mask on,” Chapek told investors in an earnings call on Thursday. “We’ve already started to increase our capacities,” added Chapek, who predicted that the relaxed recommendations would quickly boost attendance at Disney’s theme parks, water parks and other venues.
Rival amusement park operator Six Flags Entertainment said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch that the company is reviewing the new CDC guidance and would adjust its mask policy “with the health and safety of our guests and team members top of mind.”
Six Flags currently requires all guests over the age of 2 to wear face masks at its 27 amusement parks across North America.
Casino operator Wynn Resorts was among the first businesses to tell guests they can stop wearing masks, citing the CDC’s new guidance.
“Beginning this evening, Wynn Las Vegas and Encore will communicate to guests that they are not required to wear a mask if they are fully vaccinated and are required to wear a mask if they are not. The resort trusts guests to take the appropriate precautions based on their personal vaccination status,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
The same policy applies to Wynn’s employees, the company said.
Despite the urgency to ease COVID-19 protocols by some businesses, a union representing food and retail workers said the CDC’s latest guidance could put them at risk. The new policy fails to consider the safety of hundreds of thousands of food and retail workers across the country, the United Food and Commercial Workers said in a news release.
Frontline workers are again being put in the position of having to police whether customers are following public safety rules — in this case enforcing mask-wearing among the unvaccinated, according to the labor group, which represents 1.3 million workers.
“While we all share the desire to return to a mask-free normal, [the CDC] guidance is confusing and fails to consider how it will impact essential workers who face frequent exposure to individuals who are not vaccinated and refuse to wear masks,” Marc Perrone, the UFCW’s international president, said in a statement.
