CDC greenlights maskless face-to-face meetings with no social distancing.

But there’s a catch.

It has something to do with vaccinations. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.

Here are the CDC’s new recommendations, which apply to non-healthcare settings.

Fully vaccinated people can:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.
• Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing.
• Refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

• Take precautions in public, like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing.
• Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
• Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households
• Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings.
• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
• Follow guidance issued by individual employers.
• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations.

For the purposes of this guidance, people are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 ≥2 weeks after they have received the second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna), or ≥2 weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine (Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen).

So, basically, once I’m vaccinated, I can take an in-person deposition without wearing a mask and get uncomfortably close to the witness in an intimidating (but not pervy) manner if everyone (or everyone less one person) is fully vaccinated. Well, unless the state or locality where I plan to depose the witness has an Executive Order or other stringent rules in place that require me to wear a mask and socially-distance.

Buzzkill. (Not for nothing, but I’m growing fond of remote depositions. So, I’ll pass anyway.)

But seriously, this is the groundwork for getting back to normal in the workplace.