Fauci Makes New Prediction on COVID Mask Mandates

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 14, 2022. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Sunday that it’s likely that no federal mandates will be implemented for masks, but he suggested that recommendations may be given.

“I can see that if we get a significant uptick in cases that you may see the recommendation that masks be used under certain circumstances and indoor crowded settings, but I don’t see there'd be certainly not federal mandates,” he told ABC News on Sunday morning, adding he would be “extremely surprised.”

“There may be local organizations that may require masks, but I think what we’re gonna see mostly are, if the cases go up that there might be recommendations, not mandates. There’s a big difference there,” Dr. Fauci continued.

The ABC host Jonathan Karl then pressed the former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on the efficacy of wearing masks, coming three years after the start of the pandemic in the United States. He asked Dr. Fauci about several new studies suggesting that masking doesn’t contain the virus.

In response, Dr. Fauci claimed that some of the studies have been misunderstood, including a recent one published by Cochrane Library. Without providing more details, the former health official alleged that it has been “quoted a lot and causing a lot of confusion.”

Researchers in the study found that “wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.” In a subsequent statement, it said that the results were inconclusive and alleged that it didn’t show that “masks don’t work.”

But there have been hundreds of studies since 2020 that suggest or show masks do little to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Fauci and other federal officials over the years have often downplayed such findings, however, and have opted to cite studies that say masks are effective.

In the Sunday interview, once again, Dr. Fauci said that it is “absolutely not the case” that masks are ineffective. “There are a number of studies that show that masks actually do work,” he added.

His comments come after a handful of schools, colleges, businesses, hospitals, and at least one local government have reimplemented mask mandates in recent days. Last week, a school in Montgomery County, Maryland, stirred controversy by announcing it was bringing back a mask mandate for kindergarteners in a class after three students tested positive for COVID-19.

“Additional KN95 masks have been distributed and students and staff in identified classes or activities will be required to mask while in school for the next 10 days, except while eating or drinking,” Rosemary Hills School Principal Rebecca Irwin Kennedy said in a letter, dated Sept. 5, announcing the mandate.

Last month, at least one school district in Alabama mandated masks. Officials at the Kinterbish Junior High School in Cuba, Alabama, released a message on social media saying that “due to the slow raise [sic] of COVID cases in the area, students, employees, and visitors are asked to wear facial masks.” It did not say for how long it would remain intact.

Students and parents arrive masked for the first day of the school year at Grant Elementary School in Los Angeles on Aug. 16, 2021. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Last week, a judge in Dallas County, Alabama, said the county reimplemented a mask mandate in county buildings that are open to the public.

Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn stated this week that the policy was instated due to a reported increase in COVID-19 cases nationally and locally. There have also been isolated COVID-19 cases in county buildings, he claimed, according to a local media outlet WAKA-TV.

“At this point in time it is only being taken effect in the government buildings that the public come into. And that will be the three buildings that we have. The courthouse, the annex and the administrative building. These three buildings in which the public come in and we provide services to the public,” said Mr. Nunn, without providing more details.

The mandate was issued in spite of a relatively “low” risk of contracting COVID-19 in Dallas County, according to data from the Covid Act Now nonprofit and tracker.

In neighboring Georgia, a small Atlanta college last month implemented a mask mandate for two weeks. In an update to media outlets, Morris Brown College’s president confirmed earlier in September that the rule had ended.

The return of mandates has sparked backlash among Republicans. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) introduced a bill this week that would ban federal agencies from requiring masks, which stalled on the Senate floor on Thursday after Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) refused to give him unanimous consent.