Washington—Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser of the Biden Administration, emphasized that it was time to stop wearing face covers in some circumstances amid continued confusion and debate about wearing masks.
“If you are vaccinated and outside, put your mask aside. You don’t have to wear it.” In a TV interview on Thursday morning.
Characteristically dull comments come up in the question of whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention misinterprets scientific research and exaggerates the risk of outdoor infections.
Fauci, who began his career in combating the HIV / AIDS epidemic, has usually been alert. However, he also recognizes that fatigue has begun, especially with regard to the problem of wearing masks.
“We have to make that transition,” Forch said Thursday morning.Just a few days ago, Fauci That mask wear can be “seasonal” in the United States, as is already the case in some East Asian countries.
But pulling a mask out of a kitchen drawer cluttered in the midst of a nasty flu season isn’t exactly the same as universal masking, both indoors and outdoors. This is a more pressing issue for the country. Although vaccinated against the coronavirus, thousands of people are infected with the pathogen every day.
When the coronavirus pandemic first began, people were confused about face masks. Now that the pandemic is almost over in the United States, people are still confused about face masks.
The confusion is no longer whether they work (whether they work according to scientific research), but whether they need to be worn both indoors and outdoors, vaccinations have not yet been vaccinated with the coronavirus. Whether you need to hide as diligently as a person vaccine.
Fauci’s comments were practically (if not in tune), in line with a recommendation from the CDC late last month. Critics say the guidance is not well-developed, as even unvaccinated people appear to be very unlikely to spread or contract the coronavirus outdoors. Many of those same critics were still angry that the kids were still masking outdoors in most situations.
Much of the recent criticism has focused on Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. He talked about infection rates and hospitalization trajectories in March. The doomsday scenario did not materialize, and the comments only helped to deepen the gap between supporters of continuous attention and evangelists who took off their masks and returned to normal as soon as possible.
Nothing shows that division as much as a face mask. That’s probably why it continues to be the source of so much political and cultural appeal.
When the pandemic first began, civil servants in the Trump administration said masks were unnecessary. They later urged them to wear masks, despite conservative repulsion. Dr. Robert Redfield, Trump’s CDC director, even said it was a comment that attracted the president’s anger.
However, the benefits of masks appear to be limited to indoor environments where the physical proximity of people, especially in poorly ventilated spaces, promotes the diffusion of suspended particles. Outdoors, aerosol scientists have found that particles usually spread too quickly to spread the virus.
However, the latest CDC guidance does not seem to reflect these conclusions and advises that unvaccinated people will continue to wear masks in most situations. Since the vaccine is not approved for children (Pfizer vaccine was approved for adolescents earlier this week), it means that children will be instructed to continue wearing face masks in playgrounds and other environments. To do.
Resistance to masking as a child In part, it seems that children rarely spread or contract the coronavirus.
Criticism of the CDC has intensified this week with claims promulgating a “huge exaggeration.” — Explain that the risk of outdoor infection is less than 10%. The actual risk, based on studies conducted in Ireland and elsewhere, is about one-tenth of a percent.
Fauci was drawn from the right, but he is a professional political operator who served (and survived), but Valensky is unfamiliar with high-stakes politics. A renowned infectious disease expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, she is currently faced with the surveillance of poll-elected officials and combat-savvy cultural warriors.
She is also the head of an institution that has lost some trust during the Trump administration and wants to return to the good grace of the American people, not to mention the senator who manages the institution’s funds. However, while the lack of guidance can prove alarming, guidance appears to be separated from scientific reality.
“I understand they are in a difficult position,” said Dr. Linawen of George Washington University. For articles critical of the CDC. “But attention and determination come at a price.”
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