Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 14, 2024 23:28:22 GMT
Fauci urges at-risk people to keep masking to prevent COVID-19 - Published Aug 13, 2024
Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging at-risk people to continue wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking to MedPage Today, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases explained he became infected with the disease for the third time in July. The illness, he said, came despite being vaccinated and boosted six times.
“I got infected about two weeks ago. It was my third infection, and I had been vaccinated and boosted a total of six times,” Fauci said. “It was a very, very mild infection. I’m 83 years old. I would think that if I were naïve immunologically, this thing could have killed me. But it didn’t even make me significantly ill. A little sniffles, a little sinusitis, and a fever, and then it was over.”
He went on to advise those in “a risk category” to continue to take the disease seriously.
“You don’t have to immobilize what you do and just cut yourself off from society. But regardless of what the current recommendations are, when you are in a crowded, closed space and you are an 85-year-old person with chronic lung disease or a 55-year-old person who’s morbidly obese with diabetes and hypertension, then you should be wearing a mask when you’re in closed indoor spaces,” Fauci said.
Fauci added he still wears a mask himself in some circumstances, including while using a public restroom.
He also recommended that those at high risk for COVID continue to mask in “closed indoor spaces.” These individuals, he said, should use Paxlovid upon infection despite its high price tag.
“It’s a little expensive these days for the risk-benefit, but people are patients, they’re not economists,” he said of Paxlovid.
The news follows a Gallup survey which found the number of Americans who think it’s “extremely” important for parents to vaccinate their children has significantly declined. Only 40% of respondents agreed, representing a decline from the 58% who said it was extremely important in 2019, and the 64% in 2021.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging at-risk people to continue wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking to MedPage Today, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases explained he became infected with the disease for the third time in July. The illness, he said, came despite being vaccinated and boosted six times.
“I got infected about two weeks ago. It was my third infection, and I had been vaccinated and boosted a total of six times,” Fauci said. “It was a very, very mild infection. I’m 83 years old. I would think that if I were naïve immunologically, this thing could have killed me. But it didn’t even make me significantly ill. A little sniffles, a little sinusitis, and a fever, and then it was over.”
He went on to advise those in “a risk category” to continue to take the disease seriously.
“You don’t have to immobilize what you do and just cut yourself off from society. But regardless of what the current recommendations are, when you are in a crowded, closed space and you are an 85-year-old person with chronic lung disease or a 55-year-old person who’s morbidly obese with diabetes and hypertension, then you should be wearing a mask when you’re in closed indoor spaces,” Fauci said.
Fauci added he still wears a mask himself in some circumstances, including while using a public restroom.
He also recommended that those at high risk for COVID continue to mask in “closed indoor spaces.” These individuals, he said, should use Paxlovid upon infection despite its high price tag.
“It’s a little expensive these days for the risk-benefit, but people are patients, they’re not economists,” he said of Paxlovid.
The news follows a Gallup survey which found the number of Americans who think it’s “extremely” important for parents to vaccinate their children has significantly declined. Only 40% of respondents agreed, representing a decline from the 58% who said it was extremely important in 2019, and the 64% in 2021.