People who don’t wear masks are ‘encroaching on others’ individual rights’: Fauci defends new CDC mask guidance for the vaccinated as he warns things are ‘going to get worse’ with COVID
- Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday said COVID-19 cases will continue to rise, but he does not see the need for lockdowns again
- Fauci again called out unvaccinated Americans for furthering the spread
- Currently, about 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated
- Fauci made his statements as Florida became the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the US
Dr Anthony Fauci has warned of ‘some pain and suffering in the future’ as coronavirus cases continue to rise, but said that he does not see the need for new lockdowns.
‘I don’t think we’re going to see lockdowns,’ Fauci told Jonathan Karl of ABC’s This Week on Sunday. ‘I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country – not enough to crush the outbreak – but I believe enough to allow us to not get into the situation we were in last winter.’
The nation’s top infectious disease expert warned, however, that ‘things are gonna get worse’ and the number of COVID-19 cases will continue to rise because so many Americans are still unvaccinated.
‘We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated,’ he said.
‘The unvaccinated, who have a much, much, much greater chance of being infected in the first place, are the ones most vulnerable to getting severe illness that might lead to hospitalization and, in some cases, death.’
Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday said COVID-19 cases will continue to rise, but he does not see the need for lockdowns again
He added: ‘So we’re looking, not to lockdown, but we’re looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we’re seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated or this would not be happening.’
While this week the nation saw a surge in Americans getting the shot, as coronavirus cases rise driven largely by the more infectious delta variant, still only about 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated.
Karl also pressed Fauci about new mask-wearing guidelines released by the CDC that urge even vaccinated people to wear masks again indoors. Fauci has been criticized for flip-flopping on his views regarding whether vaccinated individuals need masks.
‘The change, as we know now, is even if you are fully vaccinated when you are in an indoor setting in an area of the country that has a high or substantial degree of transmissibility . . . you should wear a mask, even if you, in fact, are vaccinated,’ Fauci said.
He added: ‘That has much more to do with transmission . . . no vaccine is 100 percent effective, which means in areas of high volume of infection, vaccinated people will get infected. Thank goodness, for the most part, they will not get seriously ill. They will generally be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.’
Fauci argued that the unvaccinated are affecting others by ‘allowing the propagation and the spread of the outbreak,’ and pushed back against politicians and critics who say whether to get the shot is an individual decision.
Fauci also echoed the new mask wearing guidelines released by the CDC that says even vaccinated people should wear masks again indoors
Some Republican governors argued that it impedes individuals’ rights to not allow them to make their own decisions about getting the vaccine. Above, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene dramatically pulled off her mask at the U.S. Capitol
Some Republican governors, including Arizona’s Doug Ducey and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, argued that it impedes individuals’ rights to not allow them to make their own decisions about getting the vaccine.
Asked about such governors’ views, Fauci said: ‘I respectfully disagree with them . . . although you want to respect every person’s individual right, when you are dealing with a public health situation . . . the fact is, if you get infected, even if you are without symptoms, you very well may infect another person who may be vulnerable, who may get seriously ill.
‘So in essence, you are encroaching on their individual rights because you are making them vulnerable, so you could argue that situation both ways.
The average number of new cases reported each day has nearly doubled in the past 10 days and the number of hospitalized patients in many states is surging, according to a Reuters analysis.
A recent uptick in COVID-19 cases linked to Provincetown, Massachusetts, sparked fear among many by proving that the now-dominant delta variant may be able to spread among fully vaccinated people, ABC News reported.
But Fauci said that this should be expected as no vaccine is impenetrable. ‘The vaccines are doing what they’re supposed to do,’ he said. ‘They’re protecting one from getting seriously ill, requiring hospitalizations and perhaps, even dying.’
Vaccinated people infected with the Indian ‘Delta’ variant have the same viral levels as the unvaccinated infected with this variant, Fauci said, citing unreleased data from the CDC that led to its new decision on mask-wearing.
Meanwhile, Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state´s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday, as its theme park resorts again started asking visitors to wear masks indoors.
The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the US as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus continues to spread.
Republican Florida Gov Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the state Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. DeSantis on Friday barred school districts from requiring students to wear masks when classes resume next month.
The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the CDC website.
The figures show how quickly the number of cases is rising in the Sunshine State: only a day earlier, Florida reported 17,093 new daily cases. The previous peak in Florida had been 19,334 cases reported on January 7, before the availability of vaccinations became widespread.
Amid the spike in new Delta variant cases, countries around the world are pushing to get more young people vaccinated. Teenagers lined up to receive Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine at the Phnom Penh Thmey Health Center in Cambodia on Sunday, when the country began its inoculation campaign for young people aged 12-17
A protester in Turin, Italy, on July 28 revealed a sign shaped like a Star of David reading in Italian ‘They want us like this’ during a protest against plans to require people to hold cards showing proof of vaccination to continue normal social activities, like dining indoors at restaurants, visiting museums or cheering home teams in stadiums
People staged a protest against the vaccination pass in Rome on July 28 after Italy’s government approved a decree ordering the use of the so-called ‘green’ passes starting on Aug. 6. To be eligible for a pass, individuals must prove they have received at least one vaccine dose in the last nine months, recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months or tested negative in the previous 48 hours
Amid the spike in new Delta variant cases, countries around the world are pushing to get more teenagers vaccinated.
Germany’s government will recommend the coronavirus vaccine for all 12- to 17-year-olds on Monday, according to a draft resolution ahead of a planned meeting of state-level health ministers. They also plan to offer boosters to high-risk individuals starting in September.
The European Medicines Agency approved the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year old individuals in May, and Moderna´s vaccine in late July. Still, Germany´s vaccine commission had thus far only recommended high-risk youths under 18 be vaccinated, citing a lack of data on vaccine safety in this age group.
More than 61 percent of the German population has received at least one dose of vaccine and 52 percent are fully vaccinated.
And in Italy, by the end of July, 60percent of those aged 12 and older will have been vaccinated, according to government figures on Sunday.
Italy is particularly trying to encourage young people to receive the jab. On Saturday night, an ice cream parlor in Ostia, a popular beach town near Rome, paired the debut of a new flavor with the possibility to receive the vaccine without making a reservation. State radio said many people stepped up to take the injection. As a reward, they received a free ‘coffee-beer’ flavored gelato.
Cambodia is also pushing to vaccinate minors and aims to inoculate about 2 million people aged 12 to 17 before November, beginning in the capital Phnom Penh and three nearby provinces. Among the first to be vaccinated Sunday were the grandchildren of Prime Minister Hun Sen and grandchildren of other government ministers.
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