Fauci says it’s conceivable that schools will be mask-free in the fall

May 24, 2021: -Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the White House, said that it’s conceivable for middle schools and high schools to be utterly mask-free in the fall.

“If the children are vaccinated, it is conceivable that that would wind up being a recommendation. We’ll have to wait and see,” Fauci said.

On Tuesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that more than half a million 12- to 15-year-olds had received a Covid-19 vaccine so far in a week since the CDC cleared it for public distribution.

Fauci told CNBC that he predicts the rules on vaccinated students will vary around school districts in other states due to the local authorities are the ones with the power to do it. 

This week, the Iowa and Texas governors signed laws that ban school districts from making the masks mandatory for staff. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said it was up to decide if the children should wear masks in public schools all around the state.

Fauci told host Shepard Smith that he agrees the U.S. will reach Biden’s goal of having 70% of U.S. adults receive at least one dose of a Covid vaccine by July 4.

Fauci said it would be unlikely for the country to experience a Covid-19 surge while decreasing if people continue to get vaccinated.

“It’s within our power. We can stop it or prevent it only by vaccination, and I guess that’s the thing that’s so frustrating regarding when people don’t want to get vaccinated,” Fauci said.

“We all want to be back to normal. There’s an easy pathway to that, and that is just get vaccinated,” Fauci added.

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also clarified that, at this time, “we don’t know” if “we absolutely will need booster shots” because we don’t know the duration of protection regarding the vaccines.

“We may, at some time, have to get a booster shot, but we don’t know when that is, whether that’s a year or more than a year. So I think we just better be prepared for it, and that was the point that I was trying to make,” Fauci said.