FAUCI: Mask-Wearing May Become ‘Seasonal’ so Americans Can Avoid the Flu

Dr. Anthony Fauci projected some Americans may continue to wear their face-coverings even after the COVID pandemic recedes to avoid the “seasonal” flu and other air-born illnesses in the years ahead.

“We’ve had practically a non-existent flu season this year merely because people were doing the kinds of public health things that were directed predominantly against COVID-19,” Fauci told NBC News.

“So it is conceivable that as we go on, a year or two or more from now, that during certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory-borne viruses like the flu, people might actually elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory-borne diseases,” Fauci continued.

“The fact that we have vaccines right now … is really a game changer,” Fauci said on NBC.

“I mean, if we get, which we will, to the goals that the president has established — namely if we get 70 percent of the people vaccinated by the Fourth of July, namely one single dose and even more thereafter — you may see blips, but if we handle them well, it is unlikely that you’ll see the kind of surge that we saw in the late fall and the early winter,” he said.

h/t NY Post