Dr. Gupta: How to assess risk when going mask-free

CNN — For more than a year now, many of us have followed the standard drill: wash our hands, stay 6 feet apart, choose outdoor activities over indoors, and – most of all – wear a mask. Well, it’s not 100% safe: for people who are vaccinated, there can be what’s termed “breakthrough infections,” which basically means, a person can get infected even after getting vaccinated. “The big thing that we know is… people that are vaccinated are not ending up in ICU and are not dying … They’re amazing in that respect,” he said. “A good quality mask reduces your risk about 20-fold … Physical distancing and avoiding high risk situations – restaurants, gyms, things like that – also have a multiplicative factor in regards to risk reduction.” He said the Swiss cheese model of adding different layers of protection can lower your risk of being infected “30-, 40-, 50-fold.” A matter of risk aversion? It might be a very valuable activity to you; in that case it might be worth taking the risk… There’s no objectively right answer to that.” He said a simple way to choose is to make a direct comparison: “Is the value of the concert greater than the harm from this risk to me?” Hammitt echoes what Wittenberg and Konnikova said, we’re never going to have enough information to estimate the risk of anything perfectly.