Covid US: Anthony Fauci and Rand Paul clash on masks for vaccinated

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony got into a heated clash with Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday after Paul said it amounted to ‘political theater’ when people including Fauci wore masks even after being vaccinated.

Fauci, 80, who advises President Joe Biden on battling the coronavirus, shot back and defended his view that there is not yet sufficient information about the transmissibility of the virus that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.

‘I totally disagree with you,’ he told Paul, a Kentucky Republican, after the senator lectured him.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky blasted government guidance that people who have been vaccinated continue to wear masks. He called it ‘theater’ – although experts say it is to provide protection from spreading dangerous new variants

Paul, who was the first senator to test positive for the virus last year, and who infuriated some of his colleagues by going about his Senate business even after he got tested and was awaiting results, went after the current government guidance.

He said people might be more inclined to get vaccinated if they would gain the ability to ditch their masks once they went through with getting one.

‘You’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling you to wear masks we’ve been vaccinated,’ said Paul, who is an ophthalmologist.

‘Instead you should be saying: there is no science to say we’re going to have a problem from the large number of people you vaccinated. You want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy? Tell them they can quit wearing their mask after they get the vaccine,’ Paul intoned.

‘You want people to get the vaccine? Give them a reward instead of telling them that the nanny state is going to be there for three more years and you got to wear a mask forever,’ he said.

‘I totally disagree with you,’ Fauci told Paul after the senator lectured him

‘If you have immunity, they’re theater,’ said Paul

President Joe Biden has urged Americans to wear masks for 100 days to gain control of the virus

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who has been vaccinated, wears a mask when approaching the podium at the White House briefing room, but removes it for her remarks

‘People don’t want to hear it, there’s no science behind it,’ Paul continued, not leaving the witness much time to respond.

‘Well, let me just state for the record that masks are not theater. Masks are protective,’ Fauci said.

‘If you have immunity, they’re theater,’ said Paul. ‘If you already have immunity you’re wearing a mask to give comfort to others,’ he said.

‘I totally disagree with you,’ said Fauci, who advised President Trump during the start of the pandemic and revealed that he chafed at times in the role.

Fauci said dangerous new variants of the virus, including a more transmissible one that came from Great Britain, could still pose a risk to people who have previously been infected from different strains.

Meanwhile, Biden took a victory lap Thursday announcing that his administration would meet its goal of having 100 million shots in arms in his first 100 days in office nearly six weeks early.

‘Tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans,’ he said during a speech at the White House.

Biden was panned for announcing a vaccination goal in January that sounded ambitious, but which the country was already on track to reach when former President Trump left office.

He’ll set a new goal next week.

He also warned Americans it was not a time to relax mask wearing and social distancing.

The threat posed by mutations is the reason the CDC continues to advise people to wear masks when in public settings and with others – although it revised guidance to say people who have been vaccinated can remove masks when meeting small groups of other vaccinated people or with family members within the home.

Said Fauci: ‘In the South African study conducted by [Johnson & Johnson], they found that people who were infected with wild type and were exposed to the variant in South Africa, the 351, it was as if they had never been infected before, they had no protection.’

Scientists still don’t know how long expected immunity would last with the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 2 million worldwide.

WHICH CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS COULD WEAKEN VACCINES?

Viruses are constantly evolving, so there are and always will be countless ‘variants’ of coronavirus.

But not all variants are worrisome. Most are no more dangerous than the most common form. Some are weaker.

In the U.S., there are currently five ‘variants of concern.’ All appear to be more infectious than the ‘wild type’ that caused the vast majority of infections in the previous waves of the pandemic. Only some might weaken vaccine effectiveness or evade vaccines.

‘UK VARIANT’ B117

IS IT MORE INFECTIOUS? Yes, estimated to be 50-70% more infectious

IS IT MORE DEADLY? That isn’t well-established. The latest research suggests it may be up to 55% more fatal.

CAN IT ‘ESCAPE’ VACCINES OR REINFECT PEOPLE? No. Vaccines appear so far to work just as well against B117 and it does not seem to reinfect people.

‘SOUTH AFRICAN’ VARIANT B1351

IS IT MORE INFECTIOUS? Yes, estimated to be about 50% more infectious

IS IT MORE DEADLY? No, so far the variant appears to have about the same mortality risks as forms that are more prevalent in the U.S.

CAN IT ‘ESCAPE’ VACCINES OR REINFECT PEOPLE? There is early evidence to suggest that vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are weakened by the variant, but are still protective. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was 82% effective at preventing severe COVID-19 in trials in South Africa, where the variant is dominant.

‘BRAZILIAN’ VARIANT P1

IS IT MORE INFECTIOUS? Perhaps. It quickly became dominant in Brazil, and reinfection was common among COVID-19 survivors in Manaus. One study estimated it to be twice as infectious as the older form of the virus.

IS IT MORE DEADLY? Perhaps. One study estimated that the risk of death from COVID-19 increased by 10 to 80% after the variant became dominant in Brazil, but the health care system there collapsed, making cause and effect unclear.

CAN IT ‘ESCAPE’ VACCINES OR REINFECT PEOPLE? It’s well established that the Brazilian variant reinfects people, suggesting antibodies developed from prior infection or via vaccines based on the original strain don’t work as well against it.

‘CALIFORNIAN’ VARIANTS B1427 AND B1429

IS IT MORE INFECTIOUS? Yes, they are estimated to be 20% more infectious.

IS IT MORE DEADLY? Unclear. There is not enough data to show an increase in mortality risks.

CAN IT ‘ESCAPE’ VACCINES OR REINFECT PEOPLE? Both variants make the antibodies triggered by vaccines somewhat weaker in lab tests. A ‘monoclonal’ antibody therapy from Eli Lilly doesn’t appear to work well against them, though combination antibody ‘cocktails’ from Lilly and Regeneron still seem to work.