Answers to Maine parents' questions on managing COVID-19 risk this summer

May 24—AUGUSTA, Maine — Mainers who are fully vaccinated no longer have to wear face coverings indoors beginning Monday after Gov. Janet Mills updated the state's mask policy following new recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just over half of Maine adults qualify as fully vaccinated — meaning it has been at least two weeks since their second dose — according to state data, with more becoming eligible to throw away their masks in the following weeks as they get their final shots. But children younger than 12 are not yet eligible to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The new policy has left many parents with questions about how to navigate the rules while they wait for their kids to become eligible for vaccinations. Here are the answers to some of your common questions.

Do my kids still have to wear a mask to the supermarket if I am vaccinated?

Yes. The governor's executive order requires everyone, regardless of age, to continue to wear masks indoors if they are not fully vaccinated. Masks are not required for children under the age of 2 and are only recommended for children between the ages of 2 and 4, according to an earlier executive order. But children aged 5 and older are required to keep wearing masks indoors even if their parents are fully vaccinated.

Is it safe to spend time with other families if our kids are not vaccinated?

Any activity has some risk associated with it, so these decisions come down to personal risk tolerance. For parents looking to minimize risk while helping their kids socialize this summer, the best thing you can do is stay outside.

Outdoor activities have the lowest likelihood of COVID-19 transmission because virus particles are easily dispersed in the fresh air, making it less likely that a person will be exposed to a large enough viral load to cause illness. So think backyard grilling rather than a movie night, or tee ball rather than bowling.

In a New York Times survey of epidemiologists, only 36 percent said it was safe to attend an indoor, maskless gathering with multiple families. But more than 80 percent said it was safe or somewhat safe for families with children to gather for outdoor activities, even without masks.

How can I keep my kids safe in indoor settings if I don't know which adults are vaccinated?

Although the U.S.CDC guidance and Maine's corresponding policy say unvaccinated adults should continue to wear masks, state health officials said they will not require businesses to ask whether people are vaccinated or enforce masking.

Some businesses have indicated they will keep their mask mandates in place for everyone in the short term, so shopping at those stores should not be any riskier for children than it has been for the past year. But at businesses that no longer require face coverings for vaccinated people, it could be hard for parents to know that they will be able to keep their children distanced from unvaccinated adults in indoor settings.

As with social gatherings, this question comes down in part to parents' risk tolerance. In the New York Times survey, just over half of epidemiologists said it was safe for children to continue to go to supermarkets and other indoor settings provided that they continue to wear masks.

What about schools?

Students, teachers and staff are still required to wear face coverings indoors in schools regardless of vaccination status. State health officials attributed the decision to the large population of unvaccinated children at schools. Masks are not required for students outside.

Masks are also required for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in health care facilities, nursing homes and on public transit, in accordance with U.S.CDC guidance.

Health officials are optimistic that rising vaccination numbers can slow the spread of the virus, including among children who are unable to be vaccinated.

"When the virus tries to jump from person to person, if it runs into somebody who's been vaccinated, it may try to get a foothold, but it's not going to get very far," Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah said last week. "And so by having so many folks who are fully immunized, or vaccinated or have natural immunity in our state, the risk to younger kids goes down that much further."

Gibson Parrish, an epidemiologist based in southern Maine who used to work for the U.S.CDC, said the vaccination threshold needed for herd immunity was not yet known, with estimates ranging from 60 percent to more than 80 percent. He cautioned that stopping the virus entirely would require uniformly high vaccination rates across Maine, something the state has struggled with. Otherwise, children in areas where fewer people are vaccinated would still be at risk.

"In those places, you can still have circulating virus and people getting sick from that," he said.

Could the state bring back universal masking or other restrictions if cases rise?

Shah said last week that Maine's future public health recommendations would be driven primarily by case rates. That leaves open the possibility that Maine could bring back restrictions if cases rise, although the state has generally shown a reluctance to reinstate restrictions in the past. For now, infection rates in Maine have been declining steadily for about four weeks.

"I can't speculate about what we might do in the future, but for right now we're encouraged by the progress we've seen," Shah said.

When will kids younger than 12 be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine?

Perhaps by year's end. Clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine in younger children are ongoing. Pfizer, the only company whose vaccine has been approved for children between the ages of 12 and 17 so far, told shareholders earlier this month that it hoped to apply for emergency use authorization for its vaccine for use in children between the ages of 2 and 11 in September, and for children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years later in the year.

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