Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared on CNN over the weekend to share his concern that Americans may not comply with a recommendation from the CDC to mask in public after a spike in COVID cases nationwide.
“I would hope that if we get to the point that the volume of cases is such and organizations like the CDC recommends – CDC does not mandate anything – recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that people abide by that recommendation and take into account the risks to themselves and their families,” Fauci told CNN.
Fauci also reacted to a January 2023 Cochrane study that found masking to be ineffective.
“When you’re talking about the effect on the pandemic as a whole, the data is less strong,” Fauci said.
“But when you talk about an individual basis of someone protecting themselves … there’s no doubt that there’s many studies that show that there is an advantage [to masks].”
From Fox News:
The Cochrane study, led by 12 researchers from esteemed universities around the world, compared the use of medical/surgical masks to wearing no masks.
The review found that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (nine studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (six studies; 13,919 people).”
COVID hospitalizations increased 18.8% between Aug. 13 and Aug. 17 while deaths rose 17.6% between Aug. 20 and Aug. 26, per the CDC.
The numbers, however, remain far below the most recent spike in January 2023.
Weekly national hospitalizations were 15,067 as of Aug. 19; they were 44,410 in January 2023.
They peaked at 150,674 in January 2022.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) shared a clip from Fauci’s CNN appearance on X, saying “Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis. More subterfuge.”
Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis. More subterfuge. pic.twitter.com/UcjOa8flkr
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 3, 2023
More over at Fox News:
Fauci is ‘concerned’ that people won’t comply if masking recommendations return: 'I hope' they 'abide' https://t.co/JKqKk7zqvb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 5, 2023
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