On the latest “fauci masks “ issue, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House COVID-19 adviser, recently said that ending mask mandates and opening businesses at full capacity is risky. He says, “We’ve got to be careful. At minimum, people need to continue to wear masks.”
“Fauci Masks” Issue – Why Fauci Says Ending Mask Mandates Is ‘Risky’
To date, millions of Americans have already been vaccinated; however, this doesn’t mean that people can relax and start to ignore public health protocols.
Despite the recent week-over-week decreases in new COVID-19 cases, Dr. Fauci says ending mask mandates is ‘risky’ and that loosening restrictions prematurely might cause another surge. “Even though the decline was steep, we absolutely need to avoid the urge to say ‘Oh, everything is going great,’” said Dr. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”
“When you get a plateau at a level around 60,000 new infections per day, there’s always the risk of another surge,” he said. “And that’s the thing we really want to avoid, because we are going in the right direction.”
Dr. Fauci mentioned what’s happening in Italy, where much of the country will lock down again on Monday, as well as other parts of Europe. “They had a diminution of cases, they plateaued, and they pulled back on public health measures,” he said. Restaurants and some bars reopened, he said, and “the younger people particularly stopped wearing masks, and then, all of a sudden, you have a surge that went right back up. And that’s where we are right now.”
Due to the risk of a surge, Dr. Fauci says ending mask mandates is risky.
Further, Dr. Fauci mentioned the effect of COVID-19 variants, some of which are more contagious and have started to emerge in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. He said that available vaccines would protect against hospitalization, severe disease, and death. He said, “So, the best way that we can avoid any threat from variants is do two things. Get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can, and to continue with the public health measures, until we get this broad umbrella of protection over society, that the level of infection is very low.”
Dr. Fauci was also asked about “fauci masks” issue in recent public opinion polls showing growing public confidence in the vaccines. According to the new CBS News/YouGov poll, there’s a declining resistance to vaccination among Hispanic and Black Americans, but it identified differences along political lines, with higher rates of resistance among Republicans, particularly among the younger crowd.
Overall, 55% of Americans in the survey said that they would get vaccinated or had already been vaccinated. This includes 57% of white Americans, 51% of Black Americans, and 52% of Hispanic Americans. On the other hand, around 23% of Black Americans said that they would not get the vaccine; as did 23% of white Americans and 20% of Hispanic Americans.
On Fauci Masks Issue Fauci says ending mask mandates is ‘risky’ – context behind his statement.
What prompted Dr. Fauci’s statement?
Dr. Fauci’s comments on “fauci masks” issue come as Texas ended its face mask mandate amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to end statewide mask mandates was not taken well by experts, who still highly recommend wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.
Texas Medical Association President Dr. Diana Fite told The Texas Tribune, “We are supporting that the governor does say just stopping the mandates does not end personal responsibility. We are highly recommending that people need to follow the science, they need to follow what the CDC recommends at this point … and those who are the categories that can get vaccinated need to do that as soon as possible.”
Further, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN that it is not a good idea to end mask mandates right now. “I am really worried about reports that more states are rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19,” she said.
Dr. Fauci: Risks, Vaccine, and Hope
During his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Friday night, Dr. Fauci, chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued a warning – and some hope.
Dr. Fauci says cases are still at an unacceptably high level and it’s really risky.
During his appearance on the show, Dr. Fauci said on matters related to “fauci masks” issue, “I’ve said that publicly many times almost on a daily basis, Steven, is that it is really risky right now, even though the cases are coming down in a very sharp decline over the past couple of weeks, it started to plateau a bit.
And if it plateaus, it’s plateauing at an unacceptably high level, about 50 to 60,000 new infections per day. And every time we’ve seen a plateau at that level, there’s always been the risk of getting yet again, another surge. And what we don’t want to do is get another surge. We want to keep it coming down. It may not be as sharp as it has been over the last couple of months or so, but it’s still bad.”
Dr. Fauci said you need to wear a mask even after getting your vaccine. According to Dr. Fauci, you should continue to wear a face mask even after getting your vaccine. Why? This is because even if you can’t catch the virus, you might still be able to spread it.
He said, “You should wear a mask. But recent data are indicating that the level of virus in your nasal pharynx, if you’re vaccinated, is extremely low. And I think a couple of months from now, I might modify that statement and say, it would be extremely unusual that you were transmitted. But right now, just to be careful, wear a mask.”
To get back to normal, Dr. Fauci says we need to act ‘prudently and carefully’.While cases are now going down, it’s still not the time to relax. According to Dr. Fauci, we still need to act prudently and carefully to fully get back to normal.
“If we can get it to come and continue to go down, as we get more and more people vaccinated—every day, over 2 million people are being vaccinated—if we keep doing that at the same time, as we keep a certain amount of the public health measures going, such as everyone continuing to wear a mask and not just saying, ‘Hey, things look good.’ Let’s just go right back to where we think we should be, which everyone is empathetic with that need to start to get back to normal. Everybody wants to do that.
Everybody wants to get all the kids back to school. Everybody wants to get back to work in the workplace and not be working from home so that you can get the economy going. It’s going to happen. Steven. It is guaranteed is going to happen, but we’ve got to do it prudently and carefully.”
Getting vaccines will soon be easier.
According to Dr. Fauci, getting vaccines will soon be easier. “As you probably have noticed over the last couple of weeks, there has been a real concerted effort to get more vaccines available for signing contracts,” Fauci told Colbert.
“For example, with Moderna and Pfizer, to get an additional 100 million doses a piece from them to get a total of 600 million doses, J and J, which we originally contract for for a hundred million doses, a deal was made for yet again, another a hundred million doses. So, it was a question of really making a full court press to get more vaccine available. And as you do, you get through the priorities so that you get to a point where you really have enough to give to everyone.
And that pushed it back by a couple of months, which is really good news, which means we likely will have the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated much, much sooner than we originally had planned.”
Dr. Fauci says we can still remain hopeful and that this will be over one day.
“Hopefully you can be absolutely certain that this is going to end and we will get back to normal,” said Dr. Fauci.
“The question is when, and I think if you look at what’s going on now, particularly with the availability of multiple, highly efficacious vaccines that are safe at the same time to highly efficacious—if we do that together with a gradual diminution of the stringency of the public health measures, you don’t want to turn the switch on and off and say, okay, we’re doing well. Let’s stop everything that we’re doing regarding public health. We don’t want to do that.”
The Bottom Line
Still on “fauci masks” issue, Dr. Fauci says ending mask mandates is ‘risky’, make sure that you continue wearing your face masks, practice social distancing, and get vaccinated when it becomes available to you. Protect your life and the lives of the people around you!
