Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), stated Thursday on CNN's The Lead that the new BA.2 COVID variant could lead America back to wearing masks.
Anchor Jake Tapper stated, “The Director General of the World Health Organization is sounding [the] alarm, but saying that the pandemic has not ended. Are you sure it wasn't too early to adopt the new metrics that will allow many Americans not to have to wear masks?”
Fauci replied, “Jake! It's not too late if you observe that caveat. The caveat is that we must be flexible. If we do actually see a turnaround and a resurgence, we need to be flexible and be able [to] pivot to adjust our mitigation to match the current situation. We can't simply say that we are done. We're now going to move on. Because we are dealing with a dynamic environment, we need to be flexible. We're hopeful that the cases will continue to fall as the weather warms, the risk of being indoors is decreasing, and we'll be able to do well for at least the next few months.”
