Fauci says indoor mask rules SHOULD relax as more people get vaccinated

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the guidance on wearing masks indoors should start to relax as more people get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

The nation’s top infectious disease expert was asked if he agreed with the idea that it was time to start relaxing the guidance regarding wearing the coverings inside.  

Fauci told ABC News: ‘I think so, and I think you’re going to probably be seeing that as we go along, and as more people get vaccinated. 

‘The C.D.C. will be, almost in real time, updating their recommendations and their guidelines. But yes, we do need to start being more liberal as we get more people vaccinated.’ 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said fully vaccinated Americans can now safely go without masks outside in non crowded spaces.  

As for inside, the CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people should still wear masks indoors in public settings.

Some health experts have questioned whether the CDC guidelines are too strict, and that removing the indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people could encourage confidence in the vaccines. 

Fauci later told NBC that Americans may start wearing masks seasonally, adding: ‘We’ve had practically a non-existent flu season this year merely because people were doing the kinds of public health things that were directed predominately against COVID-19.

‘So it is conceivable that as we go on, a year or two or more from now, that during certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory-borne viruses like the flu, people might actually elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory-borne diseases.’ 

Fauci said he hopes the US will be ‘as close to back to normal as we can’ by next Mother’s Day, adding: ‘I hope that next Mother’s Day, we’re going to see a dramatic difference than what we’re seeing right now.

‘I believe that we will be about as close to back to normal as we can.

‘We’ve got to make sure that we get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated. When that happens, the virus doesn’t really have any place to go.’

Former commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, told CBS: ‘Certainly outdoors, we shouldn’t be putting limits on gatherings anymore.

‘The states where prevalence is low, vaccination rates are high, and we have good testing in place, we’re identifying infections, I think we could start lifting these restrictions indoors as well, on a broad basis.’

There is mounting evidence that outdoor transmission of coronavirus is exceedingly rare, accounting for less than 10 percent of cases. 

Those risks are mainly linked to crowded events that can turn into super-spreader events, or people who were in close range of one another. 

However, in crowded places like concerts, parades or sporting events, even vaccinated people should still wear masks, the CDC’s new guidance says. 

Unvaccinated people can shed their masks too, if they are outside exercising or at small outdoor gatherings with vaccinated friends and families.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Sunday: ‘I would say we are turning the corner.’

Zients said about 58 per cent of American adults have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot. 

The task now is to continue building confidence in vaccines and get enough Americans vaccinated to mitigate the spread of the virus and its variants, he said.

U.S. health officials are aiming to meet President Joe Biden’s goal of 70 per cent of American adults having at least one shot by the July 4 U.S. Independence Day.

Zients said reaching that goal could help the country reach a sustainable low level of infections.

About 46 per cent of all Americans have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot, according to the CDC

Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said another surge in coronavirus infections would be unlikely if the Biden goal is met or exceeded.

‘The larger proportion of the population that’s vaccinated, the less likelihood that in a season like the coming fall or winter you’re going to see a significant surge,’ Fauci said on NBC’ ‘Meet the Press.’

‘That’s the reason why vaccinations are so important. That’s the wild card that we have now that we didn’t have last fall or the last winter.’

Zients defended the latest masking guidelines from the CDC, which recommends that fully vaccinated people should still wear masks at crowded outdoor events or when they go indoors in public settings with other people who may not be vaccinated.

Some health experts have questioned whether the CDC guidelines are too strict, and that removing the indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people could encourage confidence in the vaccines. 

That move would not, however, protect unvaccinated people from contracting the virus from a carrier who has been vaccinated.

The CDC guidelines will over time allow more people to take off their masks, Zients said, while acknowledging Americans’ mask fatigue.

‘We’re getting there,’ Zients said. ‘And the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter and brighter. Let’s keep up our guard.’ 

Fauci said the US, which has reported the world’s worst overall Covid-19 death toll, has ‘no doubt’ been undercounting fatal cases.

The country has officially lost over 581,000 people to the disease caused by COVID-19 – but a University of Washington study released on Thursday estimated deaths at more than 900,000.

‘That’s a bit more than I would have thought the undercounting was,’ Fauci told NBC’s Meet The Press. ‘But I think there’s no doubt… that we are and have been undercounting.’

In cases where someone has not been tested, coroners are free to attribute a death to the more direct condition, and leave COVID-19 out entirely. 

A report in January found that coroners in Trump-supporting areas were more likely to downplay COVID as a factor in death.