The president’s chief medical adviser notes medical mandates face resistance because people do not like being told what to do.
Doctor Anthony Fauci acknowledged Americans are fatigued with COVID-19 mandates at an inopportune time because U.S. respiratory viruses are surging.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director made his remarks Friday during an interview conducted by Fox 5 New York.
A “Good Day New York” host asked the infectious disease expert about mask mandates to combat further coronavirus spread. She noted that health officials in Los Angeles are talking about reinstating mask mandates there.
“Is it a good idea to bring them back?” the host asked Fauci, who noted L.A. is a big city with knowledgeable, experienced health officials. He added it was probably best to leave such decisions to local authorities.
“I mean, obviously, you would like people to use good judgment to protect themselves and their family in that community without necessarily having to mandate anything, because, you know, there is a fatigue about being mandated,” Fauci said. “People don’t like to be told what to do.”
“But you really want to very strongly encourage people that when you’re having a rather strong uptick in infections, which is followed by an uptick in hospitalizations, you want to make sure you do something to mitigate against that,” the doctor continued.
Fauci noted that the U.S. is doing better with COVID-19 now than last year when 800,000 infections and 3,000 deaths were reported daily. “We’re doing much better than that but it’s not over,” he warned.
The discussion turned to the origins of COVID. Fauci repeated earlier assertions that he maintains an open mind about the pandemic’s origins, noting it is important to find that out. The NIAID director said the majority of published evidence supports theories that the virus occurred naturally instead of in a lab setting. He added that, if investigation determined it did originate from a lab, that would be important to know. Future safeguards and stronger lab safety guidelines would need to be developed.
One of the hosts interjected, asking Fauci for comment about the recently published book by Andrew Huff who claimed he was there. Huff alleged in his book that lax lab security allowed the mutated virus to escape and infect locals, which spread worldwide.
“There is absolutely zero evidence of that,” replied Fauci. “Anyone can write a book about anything, like: ‘I come from Mars and I did something.'”
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