Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci voiced ‘concern’ that Americans will not comply with masks recommendations amid reports of ‘rising COVID cases.’
Fauci said he is “concerned that people will not abide by recommendations” if masks are recommended again.
“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 called into question a Cochrane study from January 2023, which found masking 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 are many studies that show that there is an advantage [to masks].”
The 12 researchers who led the study compared the use of medical/surgical masks to wearing no masks.
According to the findings, “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).”
However, Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said that while the CDC may not mandate masks, it may result in state, local, and business mandates.
“I agree that high-grade masks in close quarters do have a use, especially if there is a lot of virus around and you are encountering people at high risk,” he told Fox News.
“But masks only work at all if they are worn properly.”
He added, “A study from the University of Minnesota showed that 30% of people don’t even wear them over their noses.”
The doctor also voiced concern about the negative impact masks have on children,
“Also, young children often don’t wear them properly, as Dr. John Walkup, chief of child psychiatry at Northwestern, told me in an interview,” Siegel noted.
While Siegel said he believes masks have a practical use in medical centers, he added that “sweeping recommendations, as Dr. Fauci appears to be suggesting, don’t work.”
Last month, Dr Robert Malone urged Americans not to fall for the media’s COVID “fear porn.”
“I personally believe that this is more fear porn. It’s not justified,” Malone told Just the News.
“There’s absolutely no evidence that there’s going to be a need to reimpose” restrictions, he added.
