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Meanwhile, lawmakers, particularly moderate Republicans, had also increased political pressure on the CDC and the Biden administration in recent days to further update their guidelines as an incentive for people to trust that life will get better as more people get vaccinated.

\"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,\" Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins told Walensky at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, told Walensky the American people have \"just lost patience with us, with you guys.\"

He asked Walensky to put \"real time into updating these things,\" acknowledging his frustration while also thanking her for her service.

Roughly 20% of Republicans say they will \"definitely not\" get the vaccine, a percentage that has decreased as more people get the vaccine but is still substantially higher than the share of Democrats and Independents, according to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

At Thursday's briefing, Walensky said that while the CDC’s decision \"may serve as an incentive for some people to get vaccinated, that is not the purpose.\"

\"I want to be clear that we follow the science here,\" she said.

Walensky had begun hinting on Wednesday night that the CDC was nearing a decision on updated guidance, though she said they were still looking at data about transmission risks and variants.

\"I have been completely forthcoming with respect to the science, with respect to our guidance, with respect to our numbers, with respect to our cases. And I really look forward to updating the guidance and providing the science that allows us to do so very soon,\" Walensky said on CNN.

And on Tuesday, when Biden similarly heard directly from governors about the impact updated guidance could have on the future of vaccinations, he also pledged guidance \"soon.\"

\"I would like to say that we have fully vaccinated people, we should start acting like it. And that's a big motivation to get the unvaccinated to want to get vaccinated,\" Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, told Biden at a virtual meeting on Tuesday with a handful of other governors.

\"We've gone a little slower to make sure we're exactly right in terms of the percent of the population that has been vaccinated, the adult population,\" Biden said, but noted that \"we're gonna be moving on that in the next little bit.\"

Some experts, like Donald Milton, a professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, fully supported the CDC’s slow approach and intends on still wearing a mask until positive test rates fall substantially.

Milton, whose community in Maryland has a positive test rate of 4%, said he would continue to wear a mask indoors until it’s less than 1%. \"I'm 95% protected against getting sick and ending up in the hospital, but it's not 100%,\" he said.

\"I want to see us really suppress it, I don't want us to let up once again too early and see more people die,\" Milton said.

Other experts say the risk of transmission and infection is low enough for vaccinated people that they should begin to feel safe without masks, and that keeping the guidance as it is despite the increase of vaccines and drop in cases could erode trust.

\"We have to be prepared to be flexible, and that means pulling back on controls when things look good,\" said Dr. Joe Allen, a professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

At the same time, the country should \"be prepared to implement more strict controls if things change,\" Allen noted.

Though it will undoubtedly be awkward to parse who is and isn’t vaccinated and assess safety with different groups.

Linsey Marr, a virus transmission expert at Virginia Tech, said it would be challenging to enforce because of the overlap between people that don’t want the vaccine and \"those who resisted masking in the first place.\"

There will also be Americans who can’t get the vaccine for medical reasons, or who have less protection from the vaccines because they’re immunocompromised, who could now be at a greater risk of interacting with people who aren’t wearing masks.

\"I think to date, the CDC has been trying to avoid that. And I understand that,\" said William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

\"But there are more and more people who've said, you know I've been vaccinated, these vaccines are supposed to be so darn effective, why can't I go back to a near normal life?\" Schaffner said.

Schaffner said vaccinated people should feel confident indoors even in congregate settings, so long as they're not immunocompromised, and be comfortable ditching their masks around children.

\"In order to start living again, we all have to start living with a small amount of risk,\" he said.

ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

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