I respect Dr. Fauci, but I think he made the wrong call this time. Thanksgiving will bring together people from areas with major COVID outbreaks and people from areas that have COVID under control (and thus large reservoirs of people whose immunity has waned or who never got vaccinated or infected in the first place but have so far escaped infection due to their areas having COVID under control). Many adults have not gotten their booster shots yet, even more children haven’t gotten even one vaccine dose yet, and many families include anti-vaxxers. It may be socially difficult to demand that they be vaccinated or even ask about their vaccination statuses, and even if asked, some might lie, or just show up even though they admit they were not vaccinated—who is going to turn a relative who shows up for Thanksgiving even if they admit to being unvaccinated? Thanksgiving is going to bring them together with lots of relatives who are old, frail, and/or have pre-existing health problems that will make COVID dangerous for them, even if they are “fully vaccinated” (which Fauci still says does not necessitate a booster shot—another wrong call given that most of the effectiveness of vaccines wears off after six months). For many of them, it will be hard to say “no” to gathering with family for Thanksgiving, and hard to tell relatives to put on masks during Thanksgiving, and having Fauci on the side of “no masks” is the last thing they need.
Of course some people will refuse to put masks on no matter what, and everyone will need to take their masks off while eating, but many will be on the fence about whether they should wear masks before and after eating. Fauci’s advice will just push them toward not wearing masks at all, which will increase risks to the most vulnerable.
COVID has surged to all-time highs (higher than even a year ago, before anyone was vaccinated) in many European countries that have higher vaccination rates and better healthcare systems than the US—while the US surge is not as extreme right now, it is likely to follow the pattern in Europe soon, since European COVID waves have been harbingers of US COVID waves throughout the pandemic.
At the very least, Fauci should have said that families could safely gather without masks for Thanksgiving if everyone had been fully vaccinated within the past 6 months and/or had a booster within the last 6 months, and if everyone had tested negative for COVID prior to arriving. But he didn’t say that. He just said that everyone could be unmasked if everyone was “fully vaccinated” (not including boosters).
Dr. Fauci’s statement: www.cnn.com/...
If you and your family members are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, it's OK for you to ditch the masks this holiday season when you're around each other, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN Sunday.
"That's what I'm going to do with my family," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."
Maybe Dr. Fauci’s family will be sure everyone was vaccinated and/or booster within the past 6 months, and test negative for COVID right before gathering, but he didn’t say so. If they are taking these additional precautions, he should have said so, to encourage other families that want to not wear masks while gathering for Thanksgiving to take those additional precautions as well.