Fauci: There’s ‘Really Different’ Risk Calculation for Relaxing Quarantine Rules, Mask Mandates in Schools

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that school mask mandates have a “really different” risk calculus than relaxing quarantine rules.

After Fauci defended the CDC relaxing quarantine rules by stating that the CDC is trying to balance disease prevention with getting people back to work, host Jake Tapper asked, “[I]t sounds as though the CDC and you are saying that American society has to accept that there is some risk, and we just need to mitigate the risk. And I think some critics are saying, well, where was this willingness to live with mitigated risk when it came to, for example, keeping schools open? Why are toddlers still being forced to wear masks? Why are schools still being shut down if the science does not support that and if we are now in an era of mitigated risk and taking reasonable risks?”

Fauci responded, “Well, Jake, you’re really taking a blanket over every individual thing that’s really different. I mean, there is relative risk, and the risk that you’re willing to take — which is one of the reasons why, right now, we want to keep the schools open, even though the risk is not zero. And I think what people need to understand, there is risk in everything when it comes to SARS-COV-2. That’s just the reality. Some people think if you do this, there’s no risk. There’s a risk to everything. There are people that are walking around now that don’t know they’re infected that are not isolating, that are not wearing masks. Those are people that are spreading it. So, to focus on the people who’ve been identified as being infected and say, you’re going to be isolating for five days, but, wow, there’s this risk in the second five days, even though you wear a mask, everything is relative. It’s a relatively small risk. And the judgment that the CDC made was, all things considered, what people would be able to implement as opposed to something that is not implementable, given the fact that you want to keep society open, that was a decision that was made.”

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