Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday he was unsure when he would support ending demands for Americans to wear face covers, but said it was “conceivable” that he would support reversing some “public health measures” by the end of the fall. .
“Will there come a time when we won’t have masks?” Fox news’ Bret Baier Fauci asked in an evening interview. “When is that time? If you had to guess – go to a sports game, go to a theater, go to a concert without a mask? “
The chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases replied, “That will really depend on how we lower the levels of the virus in the community. If we can get – and I’ve been using this as an estimate, it’s not final – if we can get 70 to 85 percent of the population vaccinated, and get a degree of herd immunity that we’re actually hoping to get. an umbrella or a veil of protection … where the virus level is so low it is not a threat at all, then at that point you can start thinking in terms of not needing a uniform mask.
“But we’re certainly not close yet,” he added. “When do I think that would happen? It’s very hard to predict, Bret, but if everything falls into place and we get this under control, it’s conceivable that you might be able to pull back a little on some public health measures in the late fall. from this year. But there is no guarantee for that. “
Fauci, who infamously said at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March that “there was no reason to wear a mask,” began urging Americans to wear face covers in the months that followed. In January, he said Americans are starting to wear two masks and told NBC News in an interview, “If you have a physical covering with one layer, you put on another layer, it just makes sense that it would probably be more effective. That’s why you see people double mask or see a version of an N95. “
Some jurisdictions have nevertheless begun to relax mask rules, including Iowa, where Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) this month eliminated rules requiring masks to be worn, in addition to ending limits on the number of people who can gather in bars and restaurants.
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