During an interview on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the idea of unmasking while on airplanes is "not something we should even be considering."
The comments came during Fauci's appearance on ABC's This Week. The Chief Medical Advisor to the President gave the remark when he was asked about current and potential mandates for domestic air travel.
The doctor said he could not even consider the idea of removing mask mandates for air travelers at this point in the pandemic.
"We want to make sure people keep their masks on. I think the idea of taking masks off, in my mind, is really not something we should even be considering," Fauci said.
The comments from Fauci comes after Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly spoke during a U.S. Senate panel hearing on Dec. 15.
Kelly spoke about air travel and current policies, saying that masks "don't add much, if anything" to stop the spread of COVID-19 on airplanes.
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As for a possible vaccine mandate for domestic air travel, Fauci shared that he thinks it could get more people vaccinated.
"A vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated; namely, you can't get on a plane unless you're vaccinated, which is just another one of the ways of getting requirements, whatever that might be," Fauci said.
Fauci went on to share President Joe Biden's latest plan for dealing with the pandemic, saying that they are working to have adequate backups for hospitals so that they are not overrun with cases of the Omicron variant.
He said they are making sure that there's enough "PPE and that if needed, there's enough ventilators in the National Strategic Stockpile. Those are the things that are immediate."
Testing and being aware of cases is another component that Fauci spoke to, saying they need to have tests available to everyone, especially following the holidays.
He added that having affordable tests easily accessible to all Americans is the key with production being ramped up in recent months.
