Fauci Fails to Rule Out Double Masking for Those Who Are Vaccinated

“You know, we have to be really careful because we do know that the primary endpoint of the vaccine trials that show the 94 to 95 percent efficacy was really based on clinically apparent disease,” Fauci said, contending that experts do not yet know whether the vaccine “protects against infections so that people who can be vaccinated and feel very well and have no clinically apparent disease could still have virus in their nasal fairings because they got infected but they did not get any symptoms.”.

Fauci then listed a “couple” of reasons to continue to wear a mask after receiving a vaccination, explaining that it could protect other people as the vaccinated individual could still have the virus in their nasal fairings.

He said that it will take “several months” to get the bulk of the population vaccinated but said availability for people in any category will likely come by April:.

One, you want to protect other people in case you have virus in your nasal fairings, and if you look in the community, there’s enough virus out there that before we start pulling back on things like public health measures, you want the overwhelming population vaccinated.

And as I’ve said, the calculation — even though it’s still an estimate — would be somewhere between 70 and 85 percent of the population.

“You know, it likely does because I mean this is a physical covering to prevent droplets and virus to get in,” Fauci said.

“Right now, people should not be walking, there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” Fauci said in the March interview.