In an exchange during a Senate hearing Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Republican Sen. Rand Paul tussled over the coronavirus and wearing masks after being fully vaccinated.
Paul argued that those who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear a mask nor do those who have recovered from the virus.
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On Friday, while he was on "CBS This Morning," Fauci said that the senator is "dead wrong" about his outlook on masks and the virus.
“Senator Paul has this message that we don’t need masks, which goes against just about everything we know about how to prevent the spread of the virus,” Fauci said in a Politico story.
At one point on Thursday Fauci called Paul's comments "theater." During the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meeting, Paul talked about how if you're vaccinated, you're parading around with two masks "for sho.."
“You can’t get it again,” Paul said in a CNBC News story. “There’s virtually 0% chance you’re going to get it and you’re telling people that have had the vaccine who have immunity — you’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling people to wear masks who have been vaccinated.”
Fauci responded saying he wanted to state for the record that masks are not theater. "I totally disagree with you," Fauci said to Paul at one point.
Fauci went on to explain how the U.S. has variants to contend with now that can still pose a threat to those who are vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19. He gave the example of how some vaccines don't seem to work effectively on the South African virus variant.
The nation’s top infectious disease expert also went on to say that the "wild-type" strain only gives immunity for six months, as reported in Politico. "Wild-type" refers to the strain of virus – or background strain – that contains no major mutations, according to the CDC.