Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a Monday interview that, despite being confident that as a fully vaccinated individual he was at low …
Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a Monday interview that, despite being confident that as a fully vaccinated individual he was at low risk of COVID-19 infection, he wore a mask indoors because he did not want to send “mixed signals.” Fauci made the remarks in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who asked how the recently updated mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affected Fauci’s mask-wearing practices. The CDC recently announced masks and social distancing were generally no longer necessary for those who are inoculated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19. “I’m obviously careful because I’m a physician and a health care provider,” Fauci replied, adding that he is now “much more comfortable in people seeing me indoors without a mask.” Fauci said that, prior to the CDC’s recommendation change on May 13, he didn’t want to undermine public confidence in the guidelines despite mounting scientific evidence that made him increasingly confident that, being fully vaccinated, he was at very low risk of infection. “I didn’t want to look like I was giving mixed signals. But being a fully vaccinated person, the chances of my getting infected in an indoor setting is extremely low,” Fauci said. “And that’s the reason why in indoor settings now I feel comfortable about not wearing a mask, because I’m fully vaccinated,” Fauci added.
