Fauci under scrutiny after prescribing mixed messages on COVID-19, vaccines, reopenings

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"Dr. Fauci is a very good public-health official. His job is to advise policy makers and inform the public," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on Tuesday. "But his job is NOT to decide what we can do, where we can go or which places can open or close And his job is NOT to mislead or scare us into doing the 'right things.'"

"Why should we trust Fauci with a national plan? Back in March, Fauci famously told Americans, 'There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,'" wrote David Harsanyi in the National Review. "(Fauci now says we should wear two masks. No thanks, Dad.)"

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On masks, Fauci and former Surgeon General Jerome Adams – who also warned against buying and wearing masks in spring 2020 – said officials recommended against wearing masks early in the pandemic because at the time there was a massive shortage of PPE for medical workers who needed it most. Further, more evidence of asymptomatic spread of the virus later came out.

Now, Fauci more recently has backed recommendations that Americans wear two masks instead of one if possible in order to keep the masks tighter on people's faces. /quote]

[quote]Another issue on which Fauci has adjusted his stances is on exactly what level of vaccination is necessary for the U.S. to reach herd immunity to the virus. Fauci previously said the percentage of Americans who need to be vaccinated to reach that goal was 70% before revising that number up to higher than 80%.

He continued: "We have to have some humility here ... We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90%. But, I’m not going to say 90%."

And on returning to normal after Americans get their vaccines, Fauci has made several different comments that are not necessarily consistent. /quote]

[quote]Many Americans continue to wonder when the nation's top infectious disease expert will tell them that they can resume life as normal.

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[quote]Fauci on Sunday declined to say on CNN that grandparents who are fully vaccinated could see their grandchildren, saying "I don't want to be making a recommendation now on public TV. I would want to sit down with the team, take a look at that."

"If I'm fully vaccinated and my daughter comes in the house and she's fully vaccinated ... common sense tells you that in fact you don't have to be as stringent," Fauci said. But, he added, "we want to get firm recommendations from the CDC" on what people can and cannot do when they are vaccinated. /quote]