Fauci says masks on planes will always be necessary no matter what: 'Go that extra step'
A scenic view of aircraft flying overhead photographed on November 29, 2010 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
FOX BUSINESS - Dr. Anthony Fauci does not believe the pandemic will reach a state in which Americans can go without masks in closed spaces, even with good filtration.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday that "masks don’t add much, if anything" in fighting the spread of COVID-19 on airplanes.
In a direct rebuke of Kelly’s comments, Fauci told ABC’s "This Week" that he doesn’t believe the pandemic will reach a state in which masks will be unnecessary – especially for closed spaces.
When asked point blank if he thought there might be a point where masks are unnecessary on airplanes, he said "I don’t think so."
"I think when you're dealing with a closed space, even though the filtration is good that you want to go that extra step," Fauci argued. "When you have people, you know you get a flight from Washington to San Francisco, it's a well over a five-hour flight."
"Even though you have a good filtration system, I still believe that masks are a prudent thing to do and we should be doing it," he added.
The question of indoor safety during the pandemic has come to the front again with Christmas only a week away and New Year’s shortly after that.
Fauci did say on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that testing for vaccinated individuals don’t need to isolate in the event they come in contact with a COVID-infected individual.
"If you are vaccinated and you get exposed, you don’t need to isolate yourself," Fauci said. "Some people, and I think it would be prudent to wind up getting tested."
He explained that testing just a few days later would help show whether a breakthrough infection occurred.