Anthony Fauci: Americans Should Be Ready for Possibility of a ‘More Rigid Type of Restriction’

Dr. Anthony Fauci over the weekend said Americans need to be “flexible enough to pivot” back to a world with restrictions in place — “more rigid” restrictions, specifically — due to the Chinese coronavirus.

Fauci has used recent media appearances to warn Americans that while trends appear to be going in the right direction, they need to be prepared to bring back coronavirus-era restrictions if public health officials deem it necessary. President Biden’s medical adviser made the same remark during an appearance on BBC’s Sunday Morning program as well, warning that people must be prepared for “a more rigid type of restriction.”

However, he said he does not want to use the word “lockdown” as it is too controversial.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘lockdown’ as that has a charged element to it, but I believe that we must keep our eye on the pattern of what we’re seeing with infections right now,” Fauci said, adding that “we need to be prepared for the possibility that we would have another variant that would come along and then things change.”

“And if we do get a variance that does give us an uptick in cases and hospitalization, we should be prepared and flexible enough to pivot towards going back – at least temporarily – to a more rigid type of restrictions, such as requiring masks indoors,” he said, echoing the sentiments he has offered over the past months.

“You can go ahead and continue to tiptoe towards normality, which is what we’re doing, but at the same time, be aware that you may have to reverse,” Fauci said earlier this month.

Fauci’s remarks on Sunday Morning come days after Hawaii became the final state in the nation to official lift its indoor mask mandate.

He appeared to make another flip flop over the weekend as well, as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director told WUSA9 that we have “actually gone beyond the pandemic phase and beyond the deceleration stage” in the pandemic, despite the fact that he said the world was just in the first phase of the pandemic mere months ago, in January 2022. What is more, last week Fauci told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos we “have a way to go” in the pandemic: