Dr. Anthony Fauci, who brought us the infamous “no masks, wait, yes masks” switcheroo and who’s so far missed just about every mark on whether vaccines can truly prevent the contraction and spread of COVID, is back with a new prediction: that we’ll likely never get to the point of being able to fly on planes without masks.
Why? Well, he didn't really say. But you should definitely listen to him.
Because, after all, he's the physical embodiment of science.
“I wanted to ask you about what the airline executives said this week," began ABC's chief Washington correspondent and "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
"Several of the CEOs of the top airlines said that on an airplane, you are actually safer than you are in an ICU, with the protection of the filtration system that they have. They were suggesting that there really isn’t much of a need for a mask on an airplane," he went on, referring to remarks made during last week's Senate committee hearing by Southwest Airlines and American Airlines executives.
“I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much if anything in the air cabin,” said Southwest CEO Doug Kelly during the hearing, referring to multiple studies that have shown little germ transmission between airline passengers thanks to the aircraft's air filtration system. “The environment is very safe, very high quality compared to any other indoor setting.”
“I concur,” agreed American Airlines CEO Doug Parker. “The aircraft is the safest place you can be. That’s true of all of our aircraft.”
Given those claims - and the studies that have backed them up - Karl then posed the question to Fauci over whether he believes face masks are truly necessary on planes.
"Are we going to get to the point where we won’t have to wear masks on airplanes?” Karl asked Fauci Sunday.
“I don’t think so," Fauci responded.
"I think when you’re dealing with a closed space, even when the filtration is good, that you want to go that extra step when you have people…you know, you get a flight from Washington to San Francisco, it’s well over a five-hour flight. Even thought you have a good filtration system, I still think that masks are a prudent thing to do and we should be doing it,” he continued, never giving a shred of scientific evidence to support his statement and never responding to the claim that the filtration system on a plane may be good enough to prevent the transmission of a respiratory virus between passengers.
Fauci: “I don’t think” we’ll ever stop forcing Americans to wear masks on airplanes pic.twitter.com/d2BmaGF0Ay
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 20, 2021
So it’s masks forever, folks.
Unless, of course, you’re a Democrat flying to D.C. for a publicity stunt or something.