Technologies

CDC and WHO recommend fully vaccinated should wear masks indoors. Here’s the latest

The CDC recently updated its stance to say fully vaccinated people should wear masks in certain areas. We’ll explain what’s going on.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors again in some areas — including schools — it announced during a telebriefing Tuesday. This is different from its guidance earlier in July that said it’s safe for teachers and students who are fully vaccinated to skip the face masks. So why the sudden change? A spike in COVID-19 cases across the US caused by the highly contagious delta variant has resulted in the CDC updating its guidance for mask wearing.

The World Health Organization continues to recommend that to slow the rapidly spreading delta variant, everyone should continue to wear face masks in crowded areas, even people who are past the two-week mark after receiving their second vaccine dose, for example from Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca.

Both the WHO and CDC agree that people who aren’t vaccinated should continue to wear face masks. But given the high rate of protection that vaccinated people have against the delta variant and other COVID strains, why are some medical experts in conflict about a barrier over your nose and mouth? We continue to update this story.

CDC guidance: Fully vaccinated should continue wearing masks in some areas

The CDC on Tuesday changed its guidance for mask wearing to say that vaccinated people should continue wearing masks indoors in certain areas of the country. This includes areas where COVID-19 cases are on the rise. It also changed the guidance for K-12 schools, saying everyone should wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. Earlier this month, it said fully vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside the school.

Originally, the guidelines said those who are fully vaccinated can «resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing» except where required, such as in planes and businesses. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky previously stuck to that guidance on NBC’s Today show on June 30, saying fully vaccinated people are protected from the delta variant.

The CDC warned CNN that there’s still a small chance fully vaccinated people can become infected with the new variant if they’re exposed. We’ve asked the CDC for comment.

What is the CDC’s new guidance for kids and teachers?

Those who aren’t vaccinated — ages 2 and up — need to wear a mask while inside but don’t have to when they’re outside. For fully vaccinated teachers and students, the CDC recommends continuing to wear masks inside the school building.

For child care programs, regarding schools with children younger than 12, universal mask use can be implemented, as children this age aren’t eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines yet. Mask mandates can also go into effect if coronavirus transmission is high in that community.

For schools that can’t provide adequate physical distancing, the CDC says «layered COVID-19 prevention strategies» should be put in place to protect kids and teachers who aren’t fully vaccinated.

Why are experts at odds over masks for vaccinated people?

In June, WHO officials repeated a longstanding recommendation that everyone should wear masks to stem the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, the CDC until Tuesday had been continuing to uphold its guidance that not all fully vaccinated Americans need to wear masks indoors or maintain social distancing. White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said that those who’ve had two doses of the vaccine should still «go the extra step» of wearing a mask when traveling to places with low vaccination rates.

A few days after the WHO recommended that people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine should continue wearing a face mask, Fauci explained why the advice differed from the CDC’s. «There’s a reason for that,» he said in a virtual White House press briefing. «The WHO is responsible for the planet as a whole. It’s different in the world in general from here in the United States.»

So, while the WHO is monitoring the pandemic around the world, with a majority of people unvaccinated, the CDC is responding to the situation in the US, where the vaccines have been shown to work quite effectively against hospitalization from the delta variant. Only 13.9% of the global population is fully vaccinated, according to vaccine tracker site Our World in Data. The US nearly quadruples that number: 49.7% of Americans are considered fully vaccinated as of July 4, according to the Mayo Clinic.

For Fauci and the CDC, the focus is on getting a greater number of Americans vaccinated in the first place. On July 4, Fauci said that 99.2% of COVID-related deaths last month involved unvaccinated people.

What is WHO’s position on mask wearing?

Wearing a mask consistently continues to be important, even for people who are vaccinated, a WHO official said during a press briefing in late June. «People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves.»

Wearing masks in public places is essential to keep people from inhaling particles that will cause them to become sick, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an American infectious disease epidemiologist, said during the same briefing.

While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are showing robust protection against variants, «breakthrough» infections may still sporadically occur. In a case in early June, a fully vaccinated woman in Napa, California, died from COVID-19. She was over 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions.

Why is the coronavirus delta variant serious?

The delta variant is the latest of new coronavirus variants and is the most contagious of the variants identified so far, according to the WHO. The delta variant has been identified in 96 countries so far and is spreading among the unvaccinated population, the organization said during the press conference.

«The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,» Fauci said during a White House press briefing on June 22.

Will there be new mask mandates or tighter restrictions?

Some countries have already begun tightening COVID-19 restrictions. For instance, four cities across Australia have returned to lockdown, including Sydney’s state of New South Wales. In the US, Los Angeles County is strongly recommending face masks indoors, regardless of whether someone has been vaccinated, though masks aren’t required in most places. Some countries within Africa and Asia — for instance, South Africa and Malaysia — have also moved into lockdown due to the delta variant spreading.

Some places never loosened mask mandates, such as airports and airlines. In the US, other public transportation facilities require masks, such as buses and trains.

For more information, here’s what you need to know about «long COVID» and how it’s treated. Also, read up on these COVID-19 vaccine side effects and important dos and don’ts of getting your COVID-19 vaccine.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Technologies

As Disney’s YouTube TV Outage Drags On, Viewers Have Few Options for Football

The contract dispute threatens another week of college football and the first big weekend of NCAA basketball.

An ongoing contract dispute between YouTube TV and Disney has led to the removal of ESPN, ABC and other top broadcasting channels from the live streaming service, with no indication when they’ll be restored.

As the NCAA football season heats up and college basketball begins, this weekend could be the second in a row that YouTube TV viewers are shut out of the biggest games.

The disagreement causing the ESPN and ABC outage stems from the «carriage fee» that YouTube TV pays Disney to broadcast its channels. Disney has faced similar negotiating standoffs with other broadcasters in recent years, including a 2021 outage on YouTube TV that was resolved in two days.

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Disney says YouTube TV is not paying enough to stream its channels. YouTube TV, owned by Google, has the most subscribers of all other internet TV providers, more than 9 million. Hulu, owned by Disney, is second with 4.3 million subscribers through its Hulu + Live TV offering.

In a blog post Monday, YouTube asked Disney to consider «immediately restoring the Disney channels that our customers watch: ABC and the ESPN networks, while we continue to negotiate,» with no public response from Disney.

Which Disney channels aren’t available on YouTube TV now?

Sports fans aren’t the only viewers left sidelined by the loss of Disney channels from YouTube TV. Here are all the channels that have been removed from the streaming service:

ABC
ABC News Live
ACC Network
Baby TV Español (Spanish Plan)
Disney Channel
Disney Junior
Disney XD
ESPN
ESPN Deportes (Spanish Plan)
ESPNews
ESPNU
ESPN2
Freeform
FX
FXM
FXX
Localish
Nat Geo
Nat Geo Mundo (Spanish Plan)
Nat Geo Wild
SEC Network

When could Disney channels be restored to YouTube TV?

As with previous Disney disputes, negotiations are under wraps. Judging by Disney’s contract conflicts from previous years — Sling TV in 2022, Spectrum/Charter in 2023 and DirecTV in 2024 — the outage may last only a few more days, but Google has considerably more bargaining power than those other platforms.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, YouTube TV posted on X, «Members, when we renew our contracts with network partners, we advocate for fair pricing to offer you the best TV experience.»

The service also said it would offer subscribers a $20 credit «if their content is unavailable for an extended period of time.» You can find updates on the dispute on this YouTube TV page. We haven’t seen any reports of YouTube TV subscribers receiving that $20 credit yet, although some people have reported receiving a $10 discount for six months which seems to be unrelated to the Disney dispute.

«Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny its subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC,» Disney said in a statement to CNBC.

In a memo to employees on Oct. 31 that was also reported by CNBC, Disney accused YouTube TV of deleting «previously recorded shows and events from their subscribers’ libraries.»

«YouTube TV and its owner, Google, are not interested in achieving a fair deal with us,» Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in the memo. «Instead, they want to use their power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content that helped them build their service.»

Disney is also asking its viewers to ask YouTube TV to bring back its broadcasting via the keepmynetworks.com site.

How can YouTube TV subscribers watch football games during the Disney outage?

YouTube TV subscribers with an aerial TV antenna can still watch Monday Night Football and college football games on ABC if they live close enough to receive an over-the-air broadcast signal from a local ABC affiliate.

Other than that, the only real option for viewers who want to watch all of the college football and basketball games this weekend and Monday Night Football at home is to subscribe to another service that provides ABC and ESPN, including ESPN+, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, or DirectTV Stream.

Sling TV offers a $5 Day Pass that could be a good option for viewers who want to watch one specific game, as well a $10 Weekend Pass that would give you college football and basketball games for both days.

For those looking to find football games at local establishments, this handy app can help you find places that are showing the games.

Correction, Nov. 5: An earlier version of this story failed to note that Sling TV day and weekend passes can be used to watch local ABC affiliates only in certain markets.

Technologies

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Technologies

iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 16: Which Is the Best Choice for You?

The iPhone 17 introduces some improvements to the camera, display and battery. But is it worth the higher price?

Now that the iPhone 17 has arrived, you may be wondering whether to buy Apple’s latest device or score last year’s iPhone 16 at a $100 discount. To help with that decision, here’s a breakdown of how the two phones compare.

The iPhone 17 starts at $829 (or $799 if you activate with a carrier), the same as the iPhone 16 when it came out — with the key difference being that the iPhone 17 starts with a higher 256GB storage option, as opposed to 128GB on the iPhone 16.

The iPhone 16 is now available at a $100 discount. So, is it worth saving some money, or should you splurge on the latest phone?

Here’s what to know about each phone, from the cameras to the displays to the batteries.

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Screen differences

Some of the biggest changes between the iPhone 16 and 17 have to do with the display.

Apple says it shrunk the borders around the screen on the iPhone 17, expanding the display from 6.1 inches on the iPhone 16 to 6.3 inches on the iPhone 17 without expanding its dimensions. The new Ceramic Shield 2 cover on the iPhone 17 offers 3x better scratch resistance, according to the company.

The baseline iPhone 17 gets a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, as opposed to the 60Hz display on the iPhone 16. That means the iPhone 17 finally supports an always-on display, so you can glance at the time, your notifications and Live Activities without waking the screen.

The iPhone 17 also gains an anti-reflective coating and a 3,000-nit peak brightness, compared to 2,000 nits on the iPhone 16. That should make it easier to see your phone in bright sunlight.

Camera differences

Both the iPhone 16 and 17 have a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera. But the iPhone 17 upgrades the ultrawide camera from 12 megapixels on last year’s phone to 48 megapixels.

The front-facing camera also gets an upgrade, going from 12 megapixels on the iPhone 16 to 18 megapixels on the iPhone 17. There’s a new Center Stage feature for the selfie camera that can automatically adjust from a portrait orientation to landscape to make sure everyone is in the shot. That means you don’t have to manually rotate your phone to its side anymore when there are more people to fit in the frame.

Both the iPhone 16 and 17 have a Camera Control button on the side to quickly launch the camera, snap some shots and use Apple’s Visual Intelligence tool to learn more about what’s around you.

Processor and RAM

The iPhone 17 packs an A19 chip, an upgrade from the A18 chip in the iPhone 16. One key difference is that the iPhone 17 starts at 256GB, while the iPhone 16 started at 128GB for the same $829 price when it debuted.

Both phones also support the Apple Intelligence suite of AI capabilities, which includes writing tools, image generators and notification summaries.

Battery life

Apple doesn’t share specific battery specs, but it does measure longevity via video playback hours. The iPhone 16 supports up to 22 hours of video playback, according to Apple, while the iPhone 17 bumps that up to 30 hours.

In CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, which includes streaming, scrolling through social media, joining a video call and playing games, the iPhone 17’s battery went from full to 98%. That’s just over the 97% the iPhone 16 scored last year.

And in a three-hour streaming test over Wi-Fi, which involves watching a YouTube video in full-screen mode at full brightness, the iPhone 17’s battery went from full to 89%. In comparison, the iPhone 16 dropped to 86%.

Anecdotally, the iPhone 17’s battery lasts over a day, even after taking photos, scrolling through social media, watching videos, texting, sending emails and more. The same can be said about the iPhone 16, so you likely won’t feel a huge difference between the two when it comes to day-to-day activities.

A new AI-powered Adaptive Power feature arriving with iOS 26 can help conserve the battery by making «small performance adjustments,» like «allowing some activities to take a little longer,» according to Apple.

The iPhone 17 arrives with the upcoming operating system onboard, but you’ll also be able to download iOS 26 on the iPhone 16, as well as some older iPhones, once it becomes available publicly. That should help to stretch your battery life on either device.

Color options and design

What’s on the inside may be most important, but people also care what their phone looks like. Like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 17 comes in a range of fun colors: black, white, mist blue, sage (a light green) and lavender.

For comparison, the iPhone 16 is available in black, white, pink, teal and ultramarine.

Both phones have an aluminum frame.

Check out the spec chart below for a breakdown of each phone.

Apple iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 16

	Apple iPhone 17	Apple iPhone 16
Display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate	6.3-inch OLED; 2,622 x 1,206 pixel resolution; 1-120Hz variable refresh rate	6.1-inch OLED; 2,556 x 1,179 pixel resolution; 60Hz refresh rate
Pixel density	460ppi	460 ppi
Dimensions (inches)	5.89 x 2.81 x 0.31 in	5.81 x 2.82 x 0.31 in
Dimensions (millimeters)	149.6 x 71.5 x 7.95 mm	147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm
Weight (grams, ounces)	177 g (6.24 oz)	170 g (6 oz.)
Mobile software	iOS 26	iOS 18
Camera	48-megapixel (wide) 48-megapixel (ultrawide)	48-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (ultrawide)
Front-facing camera	18-megapixel	12-megapixel
Video capture	4K	4K
Processor	Apple A19	Apple A18
RAM + storage	RAM N/A + 256GB, 512GB	RAM N/A + 128GB, 256GB, 512GB
Expandable storage	None	None (Face ID)
Battery	Up to 30 hours video playback; up to 27 hours video playback (streamed).Fast charge up to 50% in 20 minutes using 40W adapter or higher via charging cable. Fast charge up to 50% in 30 minutes using 30W adapter or higher via MagSafe Charger.	Up to 22 hours video playback; up to 18 hours video playback (streamed). 20W wired charging. MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W with 30W adapter or higher; Qi2 up to 15W
Fingerprint sensor	None (Face ID)	None (Face ID)
Connector	USB-C	USB-C
Headphone jack	None	None
Special features	Apple N1 wireless networking chip (Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) with 2×2 MIMO), Bluetooth 6, Thread. Action button. Camera Control button. Dynamic Island. Apple Intelligence. Visual Intelligence. Dual eSIM. 1 to 3000 nits brightness display range.IP68 resistance. Colors: black, white, mist blue, sage, lavender.	Apple Intelligence, Action button, Camera Control button, Dynamic Island, 1 to 2,000 nits display brightness range, IP68 resistance. Colors: black, white, pink, teal, ultramarine.
US price starts at	$829 (256GB)	$829 (128GB)