After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its masking guidelines last week, some North Texas businesses were left wondering what to do about their own policies. According to Fox 4, many businesses have already stopped requiring masks.
One business in particular, Lisa’s Soul Food Cafe, spoke to Fox 4 about their mask-wearing policies. Under new CDC guidelines, most people will not be required to wear masks in public, and cafe owner Lisa Davis said her establishment is still weighing what to do.
“If you don’t want to wear the mask, you don’t have to, but then again, I don’t have to serve you either,” Davis said.
According to Davis, the restaurant’s current policy requires patrons to wear masks while inside the cafe.
One worker at Lisa’s Soul Food Café, Craig Blackmon, told Fox News, “If the CDC says you don’t have to wear a mask, and then we turn around and say, ‘Well you have to put a mask on,’ that could be a problem. So we’re going to weigh our options.”
He commented, “Let’s just face it, most people [are] going to say, ‘Hey, the CDC says you don’t have to wear a mask.'”
The CDC stated that a growing rate of immunity has led to lower risks of severe disease outbreaks.
Steve Miff, the president and CEO of the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, said there is always a possibility of new variants of COVID, but for now, most healthy Americans can forgo masks.
“We’ve seen significant decreases in active positive cases,” Miff told Fox News. “We’ve seen significant decreases in hospitalizations, ICU stays.”
Recent data from Parkland shows that COVID-19 cases in North Texas are reaching a manageable stage. Davis told Fox News the challenge now is finding a way to keep her customers and employees happy and safe.
“I’d just like to do the right thing,” Davis said. “God has really, really, really blessed us.”
Blackmon added, “We can’t complain… We’ve got a community that loves us. Like I said, I don’t think [a change to the mask policy is] going to be a problem. I really don’t.”
The CDC’s new risk map shows that around 70% of the U.S. is currently considered medium- or low-risk, and posits that people within those areas may stop wearing masks. The agency recommends residents of high-risk areas continue wearing them.
According to Fox News, the new guidelines do not change requirements about masking in airports, trains, and public transportation, nor do they prohibit those who want to wear masks from choosing to do so.
“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated in a news briefing regarding the new recommendations. “We want to make sure our hospitals are OK, and people are not coming in with severe disease. … Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.”
