Jill Biden follows new CDC rules and removes face mask on trip with Jennifer Garner in West Virginia

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President Joe Biden told Americans who have their full COVID vaccine to remove their face masks and his wife Jill, visiting West Virginia, did just that.

‘If you’re fully vaccinated, take your mask off. You’ve earned the right to do something that Americans are known for all around the world, greeting others with a smile,’ President Biden said during remarks in the White House Rose Garden. 

And a maskless first lady was all smiles when she stepped off her plane in Charleston, W. Va., on Thursday, one of the first to appear in public without a face covering after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their new guidelines. 

Actress Jennifer Garner greeted Dr. Biden. She had a face mask on but took hers off when she saw the situation. 

The mood was jovial with the maskless duo chatting excitingly on the tarmac. 

Back at the White House, President Biden took the credit for bringing the virus under control.

He said: ‘I think it’s a great milestone, a great day. It’s been made possible by the extraordinary success we have had in vaccinating so many Americans, so quickly. 

‘Over the past 114 days, our vaccination program has led the world and that’s due to the incredible hard work of so many people.

‘The scientists and researchers, the drug companies, the National Guard, the US Military, FEMA, the nation’s governors, doctors, nurses, pharmacists. Everyone who has moved heaven and Earth to get as many shots into arms of as many Americans as possible. It’s truly been an all hands on deck for the country effort.’

President Biden tempered his delight at the new rules with words of caution. 

‘We’ve gotten this far. Please protect yourself until you get to the finish line. Because as great as this announcement is today. We don’t want to let up,’ he said.

‘The rule is very simple. Get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do is vaccinated,’ he added.

He also noted there would be no enforcement, addressing concerns of some they may have to prove their vaccinated status. 

‘We’re not going to go out and arrest people,’ Biden said. ‘If you’ve been vaccinated you don’t wear your mask, and they can shake hands and give each other a hug. But if you’ve not been vaccinated. Please wear a mask. Please wear the mask.’

On Thursday the CDC announced that most fully-vaccinated Americans can stop wearing their masks almost anywhere – indoors or outdoors.

The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters but is meant to help get vaccinated Americans back to their normal lives.

The Biden administration faced pressure to ease up on restrictions as more than 108 million Americans have been fully vaccinated. It’s also hoped the new guidelines will coax those reluctant to get their second dose or to get inoculated at all to get the vaccine. 

White House aides were in the Rose Garden maskless, including chief of staff Ron Klain, senior adviser Anita Dunn, and press secretary Jen Psaki. 

Other White House staff tweeted their excitement at being able to see colleagues without a face covering.

And Vice President Kamala Harris, standing out in the Rose Garden without a mask, greeted the president upon his arrival with: ‘You’ve got a great smile.’ 

Thursday started out like the past 15 months have gone. President Biden wore a face mask in the Oval Office when he met with Republican senators on infrastructure.

Jill Biden, dressed in a white dress with a pink blazer over it, wore a pink face mask mask when she departed Washington D.C. earlier in the day.

But she was happy to remove it.  

‘We feel naked,’ the first lady said about not wearing one. Then she paused. ‘I didn’t mean it that way!’ 

She also joked she learned about the new rule during the flight – and after she had bought a mask that matched her outfit.

‘We just learned as we got off the plane,’ she said of new mask guidance. ‘And here I had gone out to buy one that was coordinated with my outfit so you can’t win.’

But the first lady was gleeful about the chance to go maskless.

‘Now, the clouds are finally breaking. Spring’s more beautiful than ever. And the best is yet to come,’ she said. ‘Let’s have some fun.’

Garner, meanwhile, revealed two of her three kids with actor Ben Affleck will get vaccinated on Friday. Children 12 and older can receive the Pfizer vaccine, according to CDC guidelines. There are about 17 million children between the ages of 12 and 15 in the United States, which is about 5 percent of the population.

‘I am thrilled to be vaccinating, two of my three kids on Tuesday,’ she said. ‘I don’t even know if they know it yet.’

Garner, who had her parents with her, praised the Biden administration for being able to go maskless.

‘It’s so exciting I kind of can’t believe that I’m standing here without a mask on looking at maskless faces, and we owe that to President Biden,’ Garner said.

‘Biden said he would get us vaccinated. Boy, did he mean it,’ she added.

Garner, a West Virginia native, served on the board of Save the Children with Dr. Jill Biden and campaigned for Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign. 

She and Biden spent several minutes talking animatedly at the airport – waving their hands at each other – before posing for a round of photos.  Two local students gave each woman a bouquet of flowers.

Mark Shriver, the president of Save the Children Action Network, an organization that provides resources to low-income families, also was at the airport. Jill Biden gave him an elbow bump.

Biden also was accompanied by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin and his wife, Gayle as the White House woos the West Virginia senator on its legislative agenda.

The East Wing invited Manchin because it is his home state, and he accepted the invitation, according to Jill Biden spokesman Michael LaRosa. 

The group went to Capital High to visit a vaccination clinic for students age 12 – 15, where a group of junior ROTC officers greeted them upon their arrival.

‘I know you just want to see Jennifer Garner,’ Biden joked with them.

‘They’ve seen me their whole lives!’ ‘Garner exclaimed. ‘Thank you for your service, kids.’

At the vaccination clinic in the school gym, Biden held the hand of a teenager getting vaccinated, and then asked the girl if she knows Garner. 

‘Yes I love all of your movies,’ the girl said. Garner congratulated her on getting vaccinated, and spent several minutes talking with her. 

Manchin touted the new guidelines and what they mean for his state during the stop. 

‘You’ve all seen the latest from the CDC? That means no masks inside or outside,’ Manchin said.

He said ‘it means get vaccinated. We feel free!’

Garner also teased Manchin about his moderate reputation in the Senate where he has voted with both Democrats and Republicans.

‘We have a lot of work ahead to get everyone to get COVID crushed and to get our little kids in school ready to learn. I’m looking forward to working with Republicans, Democrats, and even Senator Manchin,’  she said. ‘I’m teasing you. That’s a little Manchin joke.’

And Jill Biden thanked him and his wife Gayle for their friendship to the Bidens.

‘Senator Manchin, you know you’ve been a champion for West Virginia, and you’ve always found ways to bring people together, and your integrity and commitment to this state is steadfast. And Joe and I are so grateful to you and to Gayle for the friendship that we built over – I don’t even know how many years it’s been, but it’s been a long time. So thank you very much,’ she said. 

Manchin, a moderate senator, is a key vote for Democrats in the 50-50 Senate. President Joe Biden will need his support on his two massive legislative packages – his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan – with its focus on infrastructure – and his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan with its focus on social programs.

He told reporters in West Virginia that ‘the president and I had a very very good meeting’ at the White House on Monday. He said that the amount of the infrastructure package was not his main issue.

‘We’re gonna find out what the needs are,’ he said.

Garner grew up in Charleston and she has previously testified before Congress in support of education programs for preschoolers in poverty.

The actress was originally scheduled to travel with Dr. Biden to Alabama last month, to promote the administration’s COVID relief efforts for early childhood education, but that trip was scrapped because of severe weather. 

Biden and Garner have also worked together as board members on the Save the Children charity organization.

Garner campaigned for Joe Biden in last year’s election, hosting an event on Instagram with Jill Biden.  

President Biden is also wooing moderate Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. He hosted both Sinema and Manchin at the White House for separate meetings this week. 

Manchin told reporters his hour-long conversation with the president was ‘encompassing.’

‘We talked about everything, we really did. It was a great conversation,’ he said.

Given the evenly split Senate, Biden can’t afford to lose a single Democratic vote on his massive spending packages. By meeting with Manchin and Sinema, he’s giving them a voice and a chance to influence what ends up in the final legislative package. 

Fully vaccinated Americans can officially ditch their masks INDOORS: CDC says it’s safe for people who have had all their shots to go maskless anywhere except inside crowded places like planes and hospitals 

Fully-vaccinated Americans can finally stop wearing their masks almost anywhere – indoors our outdoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday. 

The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but could ease restrictions for reopening workplaces and schools. People who are fully vaccinated but immunocompromised people may still be advised by their doctors to keep masking. 

But the CDC also no longer recommends that fully vaccinated people wear masks outdoors in crowds. 

‘Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in activities indoors or outdoors, large or small, without physical distancing,’ announced CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky during a Friday White House press briefing. 

‘If you are fully vaccinated you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.  We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

‘This is an exciting and powerful moment.’  

CDC’s announcement comes as the agency and the Biden administration have faced pressure to ease restrictions on fully vaccinated people – people who are two weeks past their last required COVID-19 vaccine dose – in part to highlight the benefits of getting the shot.

In a seemingly prescient moment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed her mask in public for the first time in months on Thursday during her weekly Capitol Hill press conference. 

She took off her face covering once she got to the podium, and cited new House rules that require all members to wear masks on the floor – unless they are speaking.  

The CDC’s new guidance also comes two weeks after the agency recommended that fully vaccinated people continue to wear masks indoors in all settings and outdoors in large crowds – advice that White House adviser Dr Anthony Fauci only just publicly endorsed earlier on Thursday. 

In that update, the CDC also exaggerated the risk of Covid transmission outdoors as accounting for less than 10 percent of cases when the figure is likely less than one percent, experts say.   

That’s sown distrust and confusion, fueling claims that the CDC has been keeping mask guidelines in places longer than it needs to. 

Things came to a head earlier this week, as Republican lawmakers grilled CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky over masking guidelines, claiming that the agency had let them drag on too long. 

To-date, more than 117 million Americans are fully vaccinated, accounting for just over a third of the U.S. population, and 45 percent of adults have had at least one dose. The CDC also recommended on Wednesday that eligibility to get Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine be expanded to children as young as 12.

Real-world data, mostly gathered in hospitals where CDC is expected to still advise masking – suggests that vaccination cuts the risk of infection by some 97 percent among staff who primarily interacted indoors. But that data was gathered while guidelines recommended masks were still in place, so how the virus could spread among vaccinated, unmasked people indoors remains unknown.  

The chance to ditch the mask ‘could only happen because of the work of so many who made sure we had the rapid administration of three safe, effective vaccines,’ said Dr Walensky. 

‘It could also only happen because we had an adequate supply of those vaccines for everyone 12 years and older in this country.’ 

Her remarks come less than 24 hours after the CDC recommended that states start giving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children as young as 12. The FDA on Monday expanded emergency use authorization for the shot to children between 12 and 15 (it was previously available to those 16 and older). 

Health officials have welcomed the expansion, but critics have noted that the U.S. is vaccinating children against a virus that is only fatal to less than one percent of kids who get it before sharing vaccines with poorer nations where more at-risk adults and health care workers remain unvaccinated, such as India. 

Despite her optimism and enthusiasm for the speed of the U.S. vaccine rollout, Dr Walensky cautioned that there is not guarantee that the U.S. is fully past the crisis. 

‘This past year has shown us that this virus can be unpredictable, so if things get worse, there is always a chance we may need to make changes to these recommendations, but we know that the more people are vaccinated, the less cases we will have and the less chance of a new spike or additional variants emerging.’ 

Republican lawmakers on Tuesday charged that health guidelines have unnecessarily remained in place even as more and more Americans get vaccinated.

‘I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don’t anymore,’ Maine Senator Susan Collins said during a Capitol Hill hearing on the pandemic response Tuesday.

Collins, who was reelected to her fifth term in November, told Walensky that she ‘used to have the utmost respect for the guidance from the CDC’ but now feels it has issued ‘conflicting, confusing guidance’ that contradicts health officials.

‘I used to have the utmost respect for the guidance from the CDC. I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don’t anymore,’ she lectured the agency head.

She accused the agency – whose leaders repeatedly said they operate based on the science and the available data – of ‘exaggerating’ the risk of transmission of COVID-19. 

‘So, here we have unnecessary barriers to reopening schools, exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission, and unworkable restrictions on summer camps. Why does this matter?’ Collins continued. ‘It matters because it undermines public confidence in your recommendation, in the recommendations that do make sense, in the recommendations that Americans should be following.’  

The attack by Collins, an influential senator who sometimes cooperates with Democrats, came as her state’s Democratic governor joined a zoom call with President Joe Biden to talk about vaccine distribution and the pandemic. 

At one point, Maine Gov. Janet Mills joked about people in her state responded to the CDC’s initially recommended 6-foot social distancing guidance. ‘Some people asked, why so close?’ she quipped.  

Walensky – who in March warned about a feeling of ‘impending doom’ as U.S. infections rose – spoke with optimism about vaccines approved for young people aged 12-15 – even appearing to suggest they lobby their parents for the shot. 

She made the statement when asked about government approval to extend the emergency use authorization for Pfizer for children aged 12-15.

‘I recognize some parents want to see how it goes, but I am encouraging all children to be vaccinated,’ she said during the hearing. ‘And I am also encouraging children to ask for the vaccine.’

‘I have a 16-year-old and I continue he wanted to get the vaccine. He wants his life back,’ she said.  

Officials are eyeing young people as a cohort that can help boost the nation’s overall vaccine rates – with a substantial number of adults still saying they aren’t sure they want to get the shots.