Fauci on Why There Are Mask Mandates if ‘Virtually Everybody’ Will ‘Likely’ Get COVID: Some Places Want to Prevent Overwhelming Hospitals

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci responded to a question on why there are still mask mandates, when, according to him, “virtually everybody is going to wind up getting exposed and likely get infected” by saying “masking is clearly quite capable of” preventing infection and transmission and that mandates are imposed by “individual counties or health departments that feel it would be necessary to prevent a degree of infection that could maybe overwhelm the hospital system.”

Host Bret Baier showed clips of Fauci saying that “sooner or later, as we begin to live with it…virtually everybody is going to wind up getting exposed and likely get infected” and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stating that “at some point, everyone’s going to get COVID.” He then asked, “So, Dr. Fauci, if that’s the case, why are there any mandates anymore for vaccines or masks or anything?”

After addressing the vaccine portion, Fauci answered the mask portion of the question, “Now, with regard to masks, this is important, Bret, because yes, it is a very transmissible virus. But, when you talk about the things that can prevent infection, masking is clearly quite capable of doing that, of both preventing you from getting infected and preventing you from transmitting it to someone if you, in fact, are infected and don’t have symptoms. So, the recommendation of the CDC and, remember, it’s not a mandate from the CDC, it’s a recommendation based on a number of factors that are spelled out for ease in a color code, green, yellow, orange, red. And when you have a high likelihood of transmissibility because of the dynamics of the virus in your particular county, city, state, the recommendation is to wear a mask. Sometimes, it’s optional or sometimes, it’s highly recommended. There’s not a [mandate]. The mandates, Bret, as you know, come at the local level based on individual counties or health departments that feel it would be necessary to prevent a degree of infection that could maybe overwhelm the hospital system.”

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