White House on Mask Guidelines: ‘We're Still in the Midst of a Once-in-a-Generation Pandemic'

Ahead of the CDC’s announcement that all Americans will be advised to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the move is not as a result of ineffective vaccinations but as a precaution against the hyper-transmissible delta variant. “The reality is that we’re dealing with a much different strain of this virus than we were even earlier in the spring, back in May, when the masking guidance was provided by the CDC at that time.”