Dr. Anthony Fauci stated on Sunday that federal authorities are actively considering recommending vaccinated people wear masks.
During a segment on CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper asked the health authority whether masks should be brought back for vaccinated people. “You know, Jake, this is under active consideration,” Fauci said. “If you’re asking am I part of the discussion? Yes, I am.” Fauci’s comments came amid a rise in COVID cases from the Delta variant, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochell Walensky claiming the variant is “spreading with incredible efficiency and now represents more than 83% of the virus circulating in the United States.”
Fauci added that CDC guidance still recommends that vaccinated Americans do not need to wear masks, but that local officials can implement a mask mandate at their discretion. “If you’re looking at what’s going on locally, in the trenches, in places like LA county, the local officials have the discretion, and the CDC agrees with that ability and discretion capability, to say ‘you know, you’re in a situation where we’re having a lot of dynamics of infection, but even if you are vaccinated, you should wear a mask,” said Fauci. Critics slammed Fauci’s comments as being about “control,” and “constantly changing.”
“Fauci chirping this weekend the vaccinated may well be back behind masks soon,” tweeted conservative columnist Chris Stigall. “Proving this isn’t about anything other than control. It’s sure as hell not about science.” “And they wonder why the public doesn’t know who to trust when the messaging is constantly changing,” tweeted Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative policy advocacy organization.
“Fauci is seriously suggesting that vaccinated people might need to wear masks again? Who is still buying this s—?” conservative comedian Tim Young tweeted. Fauci went on to tell Tapper that there are “two kinds of America,” differentiating between the “very vulnerable unvaccinated” and the “really relatively protected vaccinated part.”