The Senate held a hearing Thursday on Covid where the conversation between Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci became heated. Paul accused Fauci of wearing a mask for “theater” after receiving a vaccine.
Fauci who has flip-flopped several times has told people not to wear a mask, then you need to wear one and now you need to wear two. Fauci’s newest reasoning for continuing to wear a mask after receiving the vaccine or having natural immunity is that is does not protect you against COVID-19 variants.
Paul expressed frustration at the nation’s leading infectious disease expert’s prediction that Americans might need to wear masks until 2022.
Paul pointed to one study that found no symptomatic reinfections, and another that showed natural infection would prevent the vast majority of people from being hospitalized from the virus for years to come.
“You’re telling everybody to wear a mask whether they’ve had infection or had a vaccine. What I’m saying is they have immunity and everybody agrees they have immunity,” Paul, who is a physician, told Fauci.
“What studies do you have that people who have had the vaccine or had infection are spreading the infection? If we’re not spreading the infection isn’t it just theater? You’ve had the vaccine and you’re wearing 2 masks isn’t that theater?” Paul continued.
“Here we go again with the theater, let’s get down to the facts,” Fauci shot back.
“When you talk about reinfection and you don’t keep in the concept of variants, that’s an entirely different ballgame. That’s a good reason for a mask,” he said.
Paul pointed out that there was “no evidence” of significant reinfections of Covid-19 after infection or vaccine.
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Fauci Hopes Kids Are Being Vaccinated For Covid-19 By Late Spring
The head of the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, would like children to start to be vaccinated by late spring, early summer saying that it is needed to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The survival rate of Covid-19 in children ages 0-19 is currently 99.99% according to the CDC. In ages 20-49 it drops down to 99.98% and ages 50-69 it is 99.5%.
Vaccines are not yet approved for children, and Fauci was looking ahead to a time they will be plentiful. Even older adults are having difficulty getting shots at the moment. As of Thursday, only about 1.3% of Americans had been fully vaccinated with the required two doses of the currently available vaccines.
Children represent about one-fourth of the population, and for the U.S. to reach “herd immunity,” or widespread resistance, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated.
“Children tend to not become as severely ill as adults but they can still become ill and some have tragically died,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency room physician, who supports Fauci’s goal. “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and getting children vaccinated is important as we strive for herd immunity.”
Due to insufficient testing data on young people, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved vaccines for children. Through a process called “age de-escalation testing,” Fauci says data is being gathered now.
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Report: CDC Will Announce What Fully Vaccinated Americans Can Do
As soon as Thursday the CDC will announce new guidelines about what Americans who have been fully vaccinated can do. This will include being able to have small gatherings indoors with other vaccinated people.
At a White House COVID-19 Task Force press conference on Monday, Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I use the example of a daughter coming in from out of town who is doubly vaccinated, and a husband and wife doubly vaccinated, and maybe a next door neighbor, who you know are doubly vaccinated.”
“Small gatherings in the home of people, I think you can clearly feel that the risk, the relative risk, is so low that you would not have to wear a mask, that you could have a good social gathering within the home.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC, did not say when the new guidelines would be released but said the CDC is “looking forward to releasing it soon.”
While a small gathering indoors with other vaccinated people isn’t the party most Americans are hoping for, it is the first time that the Biden administration has signaled it is willing to loosen restrictions.
Despite that, Dr. Walensky warned Americans not to get complacent amid new variants and tens of thousands of new cases every day.
“I want to really keep our eye on the fact that our cases are increasing right now. Slightly, but they are,” Dr. Walensky said Monday. “And so, the goal is not to sort of open up travel, open up things because we’re scaling up vaccination.”
According to the CDC, the United States has vaccinated 78.6 million people and distributed more than 100 million vaccines.
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