Dr. Anthony Fauci SiriusXM “Doctor Radio Reports" Interview: NIH Director Talks Face Masks for Fully Vaccinated, “Long COVID,” Delta Variant & More by 30Seconds Health

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House COVID-19 Response Team, joined SiriusXM Doctor Radio's Doctor Radio Reports and clarified for show host Dr. Marc Siegel when people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 should wear masks. He also talked about America's problem with vaccine hesitancy and the issues that could arise for the unvaccinated population who come in contact with the Delta variant.

Here's some highlights from the interview that airs Friday, July 9, 2021, at 2 p.m. ET on SiriusXM Doctor Radio, channel 110:

Dr. Fauci Clarifies When People Who Are Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Should Wear Masks

“For the most part, of the things being considered, if you're a healthy person, you really don't have to wear a mask indoor or outdoors because the protection that's afforded to you by the vaccines that we have available, particularly the mRNA vaccines that are 94 and 95 percent effective, 93, 94, 95. You're really very, very highly protected. What I was saying when someone asked me if you were to go to a place and they were referring specifically to Mississippi, where the level of vaccine is low (only about 30 plus percent of the people are vaccinated), and there's a high level of virus that's increasing in the community, particularly the Delta variant, they said, would you consider wearing a mask under those circumstances? 

"And I said, depending on your personal situation, you might. I underscored might want to consider wearing a mask even if you are fully vaccinated. For example, someone who's an elderly person who may not actually have a full robust protection, even though the protection is very, very high, or someone with an underlying condition. So there are circumstances where even though we know for sure that the protection afforded by the vaccines is extremely high, that some people might want to go the extra mile of protection, depending on their own personal circumstances. That's all I meant.”

Dr. Fauci Opens Up About America's Problem With Vaccine Hesitancy

“It's a complicated issue. There are some people who just are waiting for more information, waiting for more data, but I can't see how they need more data. As you mentioned correctly, we have hundreds of millions of doses that have been distributed, but there is also something that is to me disturbing, and it's almost along ideologic lines. I mean, if you look at some of the southern states that are particularly heavy in Republican red states, for reasons that are not explainable, they just don't want to get vaccinated. And maybe it's just pushing back on scientific authority that they feel they want for one reason or other that's difficult to explain. They don't want to go along with the recommendation of scientists. Not really sure, but the unfortunate thing is, Marc, whatever their reason they're only hurting themselves, potentially their families, and clearly their communities. Because when you have a high level of virus circulating in certain counties in the country, it makes it more dangerous for everyone.

"Even those, and particularly those who are more susceptible to an adverse serious outcome of the infection. Younger people obviously have less of a chance of that, even though what we're seeing a lot more of now is long COVID, particularly that the Delta variant has a higher degree of capability of transmitting from person to person. And clearly has now been shown to be more pathogenic that even if you get infected and might have mild symptoms, we're seeing more and more people with long COVID, which as you know, can persist with sometimes incapacitating and debilitating symptoms in the absence of acute infection, absolute profound fatigue, muscle aches, temperature, dysregulation, dysautonomia, tachycardia that's unexplained, and the inability to focus or concentrate. So you don't want to get infected with this virus, even if you only get mild symptoms, because you might wind up with persistent symptomatology, which we call long COVID.”

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