Confusing messages from Fauci, inconsistencies about COVID-19 masks, vaccines and reopenings are under scrutiny

The often inconsistent comments and contradictory messages from the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) about the coronavirus pandemic are spurring renewed scrutiny as the debate over the reopening of schools and businesses nearly a year after the locks start.

“Dr. Fauci is an excellent public health worker. Your job is to advise policy makers and inform the public, ”said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., On Tuesday. “But your job is NOT to decide what we can do, where we can go or which places to open or close. And your job is NOT to trick or scare us into doing the ‘right things’.”

“Why should we trust Fauci with a national plan? In March, Fauci told Americans, ‘There is no reason to walk around with a mask on,'” wrote David Harsanyi in the National Review. “(Fauci now says that we must wear two masks. No thanks, Dad.)”

Masks

Fauci in an interview in “60 Minutes” in early March last year warned of “unintended consequences” of the masks, saying that “people keep touching the mask and touching their faces”.

DR. FAUCI: IT IS ‘POSSIBLE’ AMERICANS ARE STILL USING FACIAL MASKS IN 2022

In the masks, Fauci and ex-surgeon general Jerome Adams – who also warned against buying and using masks in the spring of 2020 – said authorities recommended wearing masks in the beginning of the pandemic because at the time there was a massive shortage of PPE for health professionals who needed them most. In addition, more evidence of asymptomatic spread of the virus emerged later.

Later, Fauci enthusiastically embraced the use of masks.

“What has changed in our recommendation?” Adams said at a meeting at the White House in July. “Now we know from recent studies that a significant proportion of individuals with coronavirus have no symptoms.”

Now, Fauci most recently supported recommendations that Americans wear two masks instead of one, if possible, in order to keep them tighter on people’s faces.

“If you have physical coverage with one layer, putting another layer on it just makes sense that it is probably more effective,” Fauci told NBC News last month. The CDC officially published double-mask guidelines this month.

FAUCI RESPONDS TO THE ‘DOUBLE MASK’ IN THE FIGHT WITH CORONAVIRUS, SAYS ‘PROBABLY MORE EFFECTIVE’

Vaccines

Another issue on which Fauci adjusted his positions is exactly what level of vaccination is necessary for the United States to achieve collective immunity to the virus. Fauci said earlier that the percentage of Americans who need to be vaccinated to achieve this goal was 70% before revising that figure to more than 80%.

This inspired a story in the New York Times that accused Fauci of “quietly changing” the recommendations. Fauci then explained to the newspaper that he was taking opinion polls into account in the way he shaped his comments.

“When polls indicated that only half of all Americans would get the vaccine, I was saying that collective immunity would take 70 to 75%,” said Fauci, according to the newspaper. “So when more recent polls said 60% or more would accept, I thought, ‘I can increase this a little bit’, so I went to 80, 85.”

He continued: “We have to have some humility here … We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90%. But, I won’t say 90%.”

And returning to normal after the Americans had the vaccines, Fauci made several different comments that are not necessarily consistent.

DR. FAUCI: USA WE WILL HAVE 600M DOSES OF CORONAVIRUS VACCINE UNTIL JULY 2021

“It will depend a lot on what the percentage or level of effectiveness of the vaccine is,” said Fauci in an interview about what post-vaccine life with Bloomberg would look like in August. “I would be very happy with 70-75% and accept 50 to 60%.”

Fauci said that continued public health measures would be necessary if the vaccine’s effectiveness were less. But vaccines have been shown to be significantly more effective than anticipated – more than 90% – and Fauci now says that Americans may need to wear masks by 2022.

“Obviously, with a vaccine more than 90% effective, you could feel a lot more confident,” said Fauci on CNN in November. “But I would recommend people not to abandon all public health measures just because you have been vaccinated, because even though, for the general population, it can be 90 to 95% effective, you don’t necessarily know, for you, how effective it is . “

He added on Sunday, also on CNN, that if Americans wear masks by 2022 “depends on the level of dynamics of the virus that is in the community … If you see the level dropping very, very low, I want you to keep going to a line that is so low, that there is practically no threat – or no. It will never be zero, but a minimal, minimal threat that you will be exposed to someone who is infected. “

FAUCI CARE WITH DINNER, EVEN WHEN VACCINATED

More than 500,000 Americans died of coronavirus, which is an airborne disease that is not serious in most healthy people, but can be deadly for older people with compromised immune systems. Fauci and his supporters said that his recommendations on the virus, which did not exist before 2019, have evolved as Americans’ understanding of the virus has evolved. They also say that the strict recommendations reflect the large number of deaths that the virus is capable of causing and has already caused.

But those who are most critical of Fauci say that he made pronouncements of “science” with far too much purpose when science was not really established; it did not match the Americans in some cases, including the duration of the blockades; and does not take into account the mental and emotional toll of virus blocks.

Also this month, Fauci said on NBC’s “Today” program that “when we get to April, that would be what I would call the … hunting season” for vaccines and almost complete vaccination “in the middle and late summer.” The epidemiologist was then challenged by President Biden, who said at a CNN city hall that the vaccine would be available to all Americans by the end of July and would take more time to put doses in everyone’s arms.

Fox News approached NIAID to comment on Fauci’s messages about masks, herd immunity, vaccines and when life can return to normal and has not received an answer.

Lockdowns

Many Americans continue to wonder when the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist will tell them that they can resume life normally.

One issue where Fauci has remained most consistent is the reopening of schools, which he reiterated was possible before teachers get vaccines. In fact, he said this month on CBS that vaccinating all teachers before opening schools is “unviable”.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION

Fauci on Sunday declined to say on CNN that fully vaccinated grandparents could see their grandchildren, saying “I don’t want to make a recommendation now on public TV. I would like to sit down with the team, take a look at what.”

This sparked Meghan McCain’s rant in “The View”.

“I was very frustrated when I saw this clip,” she said. “The fact that Dr. Fauci appears on CNN and cannot tell me if I get the vaccine, I will be able to have dinner with my family … It is a terribly inconsistent message and it remains an inconsistent message. “

Fauci responded to some of those criticisms on CNN on Tuesday.

“If I am fully vaccinated and my daughter comes home and she is fully vaccinated … common sense says that, in fact, you don’t have to be so strict,” said Fauci. But, he added, “we want to get firm recommendations from the CDC” about what people can and cannot do when they are vaccinated.

Fox News’s Kayla Rivas contributed to this report.