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

Democrat Talarico says he raised record $64 million over summer in Texas Senate race

Democrats have not won statewide in Texas since 1994 or a U.S. Senate race there since 1988, but James Talarico is making the state competitive.

Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico raised $64 million in the third quarter, his campaign announced Thursday, setting what the campaign said is a Senate fundraising record as Republicans pour outside money into the race to bolster GOP nominee Ken Paxton in the 2026 midterm election.

The haul was the largest ever reported by a Senate candidate in the July-through-September quarter, according to the campaign, surpassing the previous record of $57 million set by South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison, who unsuccessfully ran against Republican Lindsey Graham in 2020.

Talarico has raised more than $134 million since launching his campaign last year, according to his campaign ahead of the quarterly filing deadline with the Federal Election Commission.

“Grassroots contributors from across Texas are coming together to end billionaire control over our politics and bring down costs for working families,” Talarico said in a statement.

The campaign said more than 1.3 million people have donated and that 97% of contributions were $100 or less. Paxton, by comparison, announced earlier this month that his campaign and two affiliated fundraising committees raised a combined $18 million during the quarter.

The candidates’ full financial picture will become clearer after their quarterly reports are filed with the FEC. The filings will show how much each campaign spent and how much cash they had left entering the final stretch.

But the gap in direct fundraising tells only part of the financial story. Republican outside groups have spent more than $175 million since Sept. 1 supporting Paxton or attacking Talarico, according to AdImpact, helping offset Paxton’s weaker campaign fundraising. Overall political advertising in the race has surpassed $500 million.

SpaceX

The source of that money matters as federal law guarantees candidates lower broadcast rates for television advertising than super PACs, allowing Talarico’s campaign dollars to go further in buying TV exposure than outside Republican groups.

No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994, and the party has not won a U.S. Senate race there since 1988. But Talarico leads Paxton 48.5% to 45.2% in FiftyPlusOne’s polling average, a 3.3-percentage point advantage, forcing Republicans to devote significant resources to what has traditionally been safe territory.

Talarico’s fundraising also eclipses previous high-water marks for Texas Democrats. Beto O’Rourke raised $38.1 million in the third quarter of 2018 during his challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Technologies

TSMC chip capacity is ‘fierce’ battleground for AI customers, amid record quarter

TSMC had a record quarter, but it can’t make chips for everyone as Nvidia, Apple, Broadcom and AMD fight for capacity.

As Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s record quarter makes clear, demand from chipmakers shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, TSMC can’t manufacture quickly enough.

The artificial intelligence boom has created unending need for space on factory lines at the world’s leading chip manufacturer, and it could put a chokehold on the entire industry’s ability to scale. Last year, TSMC said it had the capacity to make more than 17 million 12-inch equivalent wafers. But customers want more.

“The competition is extremely fierce,” said Jordan Klein, an analyst at Mizuho Securities. “It’s a game of who can get the most leverage and supply.”

TSMC makes the vast majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, the graphics processors and central processors from Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom that are necessary for running AI workloads. Now a growing number of tech firms – Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI – also rely on TSMC to make custom in-house AI accelerators.

TSMC North American CEO Sajiv Dalal told CNBC he gets at least 10 calls a day about wafer capacity. TSMC posted record profit for a sixth straight quarter on Thursday and expects fourth-quarter revenue to be 58% higher than a year earlier, driven by strong demand for its advanced chipmaking technologies.

If compute demand continues to grow at the current rate over the next 12 to 18 months, Klein said capacity constraints at TSMC could threaten some of the industry’s massive infrastructure investments and the “aggressive revenue growth targets” from the AI companies. U.S. hyperscalers are projecting well over $700 billion in capital expenditures this year, and analysts expect that figure to jump in 2027.

AI ambitions are also threatened by a global shortage of memory chips. The logic chips that TSMC manufactures are more complex and expensive to produce. That means GPU and CPU leaders like Nvidia and AMD work out lengthy contracts and bespoke deals with TSMC behind closed doors years in advance. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su have both visited Taiwan multiple times this year.

Sid Sheth, CEO of AI chip startup D-Matrix, has fostered a relationship with TSMC for more than 20 years, and his company relies on TSMC to manufacture its processors. Sheth said that for TSMC customers, many roads lead to Kevin Zhang, a senior vice president of the Taiwanese company and a central figure in determining which chipmakers get access to its coveted factory lines.

He’s “currently probably the most popular person on the planet,” Sheth said in an interview. Sheth said that Jerry Qubain, D-Matrix’s vice president of manufacturing, has been visiting TSMC since 1992 and goes to Taiwan three to four times a year.

“This was even before Nvidia was founded,” Sheth said. “That’s a good example of a person we brought on board because of the relationships he has at TSMC.” Qubain joined D-Matrix in 2024. TSMC declined to participate in this story.

Betting on startups

TSMC had 534 customers in 2025. While it doesn’t name or rank them, its top 10 customers accounted for 78% of net revenue, with its top two bringing in 19% and 17%, respectively.

That leaves startups competing for capacity against customers with far bigger orders. Sheth said TSMC is “selective,” but has an incentive to back promising newcomers.

“They were very supportive of Nvidia and Broadcom when they were very young companies, and now these are their biggest customers today,” Sheth said. “They want to see a repeat of that.”

TSMC is hustling to bring much more capacity online, with new fabs in Taiwan, Japan and Arizona — it’s making advanced chips in the U.S. for the first time. In July, TSMC announced it was adding $100 billion and “several more” fabs to the six planned in Arizona, bringing its total commitment to $265 billion. TSMC is also reportedly considering an entirely new fab location in Texas.

All of this will take years to come online. In the meantime, analysts say TSMC is adding tools like ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to existing factories to ramp up capacity. ASML smashed profit expectations in its earnings report Wednesday and said customers are interested in placing orders through 2030.

TSMC isn’t the only option. Capacity constraints create an opening for the other two leading advanced chip manufacturers, Samsung and Intel, to win customers.

“People want a second source to be able to twist TSMC’s arm and keep them honest on pricing,” Dan Hutcheson, an analyst at TechInsights, told CNBC.

That second source might be Intel, the only U.S.-based advanced logic manufacturer. Although its foundry business has been struggling with delays and setbacks for years, Hutcheson says all the big chipmakers are now testing there.

Trade association SEMI expects 102 new chip fabs will come online globally by 2029, including 15 in the U.S. and 78 in Asia. China is the primary growth engine, expected to nearly triple capacity by 2030. In a race to catch up, American fab investments are projected to more than double by 2029.

With an increasing Arizona presence and “extremely fierce” competition for wafer capacity, Klein says TSMC is “one of the best strategically positioned companies on the face of the planet.”

WATCH: Breaking down AI chips, from Nvidia GPUs to ASICs by Google and Amazon

Technologies

September Producer Prices Surge 6.3% Year Over Year, Largest Gain Since 2022

U.S. wholesale prices surged 6.3% annually in September, the largest increase since 2022, driven largely by energy costs amid the Middle East conflict. The data has increased expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month.

On Thursday, the September producer price index significantly exceeded economist predictions, highlighting persistent inflation driven by energy costs during the U.S. conflict with Iran.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the gauge of underlying inflation rose 1.3% for the month and 6.3% year over year. These represent the strongest monthly and annual increases since March 2022 and December 2022, in that order.

These figures surpassed the projections of economists surveyed by Dow Jones, who had predicted a 0.6% monthly rise and a 5.5% annual increase.

Energy costs accounted for a significant portion of the gains, as the Middle East conflict restricted oil supply and pushed prices higher. The core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy from the wholesale inflation measure, increased 0.7% monthly and 5% over the past year.

However, there are indications that skyrocketing energy prices are rippling into other sectors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted in Thursday’s report that nearly half of September’s rise in processed goods for immediate demand was linked to higher diesel fuel prices.

This is the most recent in a series of reports over the past few days demonstrating that inflation remains a burden for both consumers and businesses.

The consumer price index released on Wednesday showed a 0.6% increase from August to September and a 3.7% rise over 12 months. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected 0.6% and 3.6%, respectively.

Stripping out food and energy, the core CPI rose 0.3% for the month and 2.6% compared with the previous year. Economists had forecast gains of 0.2% and 2.5%, respectively.

The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, a summary of economic activity released Wednesday, contained a record number of inflation-related term mentions, according to Bespoke Investment Group analysis.

Government data released in a separate Thursday report showed retail sales increased 0.8% in September, beating the 0.4% economists expected. This represented a deceleration from the previous month, when retail sales climbed by over 1%.

When auto and gas station spending is excluded, retail sales rose 0.25% from August to September, down from roughly 1.1% in the prior period. This slowdown suggests that elevated fuel costs are prompting consumers to cut back in other areas.

This week’s figures have led a growing minority of fed funds futures traders to anticipate a rate hike by the central bank at its meeting later this month. Traders are now assigning a nearly 34% probability that the Fed raises borrowing costs on Oct. 28, compared with less than 18% a week earlier, according to CME’s FedWatch tool. Roughly 90% expect at least one increase by year’s end.

“With two consecutive days of inflation readings above forecasts, the Fed appears to have no option but to raise rates again this year,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management.

These reports provide some of the last looks at U.S. inflation trends before the midterm election, which could influence the balance of power between political parties in Washington.