Speaker 1: We are now really starting to get to what is hopefully the end game with the
coronavirus pandemic.
As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago, the CDC as well as Joe Biden in support of
the CDC.
Remember, Joe Biden doesn't come up with this stuff on his own.
He just goes by what the CDC says, announcing that outside masking can be dramatically reduced
for vaccinated people in almost every situation other than very large crowds gathering mass
together outdoors.
Over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci now signaled what is really a major, major step in getting
to the end of this thing.
Dr. Fauci said yesterday that indeed he is open to starting to reduce indoor masking
rules.
We know 999 out of a thousand cases prior to vaccination were being transmitted indoors
and that we are getting to a level in the vaccination campaign now with 34 percent of
the country fully vaccinating at vaccinated, adding nearly one percent to that every single
day.
Dr. Fauci saying that indeed, we do need to start being more liberal in terms of rules
for wearing masks indoors, but just not quite yet.
Not quite yet.
We're down to about 43000 cases a day, the lowest it's been for a very long time.
But at the same time, not quite there yet, but very soon.
Dr. Fauci saying it may be time to look at easing some indoor masking guidelines.
And that really will be a sign that we are very close to the end of this thing, bearing
in mind, of course, that individuals who remain at higher risk are going to likely want to
take more precautions, bearing in mind that in the fall or winter, it may be time for
a booster vaccine tweak, tailored and calibrated towards the main variants that the primary
variants that have emerged over the last several months.
Friday, the CDC updated its guidance about how the virus spreads, saying people could
inhale airborne virus even from more than six feet away from an infected individual.
This is something that had been widely reported by other agencies and researchers.
The CDC now saying it plainly.
So in particular, when it comes to endure, this is where the overwhelming majority of
the contagion is happening.
That being said, it's Dr. Fauci, as well as the former head of the FDA, Dr. Scott Gottlieb,
all saying we are very close to statistically being able to ease off of these indoor masking
requirements, quote, especially if you're in environments where, you know, you have
a high level of vaccination and that it would also give public health officials more credibility
to reinstate more guidelines if there is a surge in the fall that is problematic and
doesn't isn't well dealt with quickly enough by the booster shots.
And I think that that's an important point.
Both of them saying there's a degree of fatigue for lack of a better term with a lot of these
guidelines.
And when the the data justify easing those, if we need to put them back in in four months,
six months, eight months or whenever, we hopefully will have more people listen to us.
Now, I know that that there are parts of the country where nobody's going to listen and
nobody's been doing this stuff to begin with.
But for those who have been following CDC guidelines, like me hearing very concrete
statements like you really don't need to wear a mask outside now that you're vaccinated,
David, unless you're together with a crowd of people, that is great.
That is a great relief.
And that also provides an opportunity to have a period of time if indeed things are going
to get worse, where we can feel better about what's going on.
I actually think that from all the evidence we're seeing, Dr. Eric Topol recently tweeting
very good data about the vaccine's well handling the British variant, the Brazilian, the South
African, the New York, the Indian and the California variants.
So if we can keep vaccinating, hopefully all of this will not come to pass.
Now, there are people who are not going to be coming out of this.
They're just their remaining home and asked for the foreseeable future, even as the guidelines
are going to ease.
And I think that that's fine.
Some people may do it because of medical conditions, others because of a sort of pandemic induced
agoraphobia.
This is going to be a real issue and it's going to be an issue for some period of time,
I think the point is no one's going to be banned from taking any precaution they want
to take.
But the numbers I mean, in some states you are seeing a number of deaths, which is the
same as what you would see during during flu.
In other words, there's states where over the course of a year, five people a day die
of flu during a normal flu season.
And some of those states are now seeing five to seven coronavirus deaths per day.
Once it gets down to that point, it really becomes more of an individual risk assessment
than statewide or federal guidelines or mandates.
And that is going to be the direction things are shifting.
And I think it's perfectly fine for people to make those risk assessments for themselves.
But when you start hearing Dr. Fauci saying we are soon going to be liberalizing indoor
mass guidelines, when you hear Dr. Scott Gottlieb say it, you know that you are getting to sort
of one of the last considerations.
We just have to keep vaccinating