Fauci changes tune again, says vaccinated should wear masks in parts of US

White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Sunday that fully vaccinated Americans should “go the extra step” and wear masks when traveling to parts of the country with low vaccination rates.

Fauci, who is also the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there would be good reason” to wear masks in those areas “because, as we’ve said so often, vaccines are not, even as good as they are and highly effective, 100 percent. “And if you put yourself in an environment in which you have a high level of viral dynamics and a very low level of vaccine, you might want to go the extra step and say, ‘When I’m in that area where there’s a considerable degree of viral circulation, I might want to go the extra mile to be cautious enough to make sure that I get the extra added level of protection’, even though the vaccines themselves are highly effective,” he added.