Dr. Fauci Is Definitely Here For Biden's 100-Day Mask Plan
Dr. Anthony Fauci says Joe Biden’s plan to ask Americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days in office is “a good idea”
As we close in on a full year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like we’ve lived 17 lifetimes. For almost all of those endless lifetime-long months, the debate about whether to wear a mask to help prevent the spread of the novel virus has raged on. Because people are so unbelievably stupid it hurts my head thinking about it. A shining light in this infuriating time has been Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. He’s been a strong proponent of masks for the last several months and now, he’s praising president-elect Joe Biden’s idea about asking Americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days in office.
Fauci told TODAY in an interview that he didn’t see Biden’s “100 days” of masking push as a time limit for the precaution, but more as a way to get the idea of universal masking into the forefront of the COVID conversation. “I spoke to him about that” he said, and notes that Biden “didn’t mean it that way.”
“He just wants to get — and it’s a good idea — uniform,” Fauci explained. “He’s saying, ‘Hey, folks, trust me. Everybody for 100 days.’ Now, it might be that after that, we still are going to need it. But he just wants it, everybody for a commitment for 100 days. And I discussed that with him, and I told him I thought that was a good idea.”
As far as our confidence that things could be better in 2021, the announcement that Fauci has accepted the offer to be Biden’s chief medical adviser certainly helps. He’s been a knowledgeable voice of reason amid the Trump administration pandemic circus and his experience this year will make for a more seamless transition as Biden becomes president next month. Imagine all Fauci will be able to accomplish working for a president who actually believes in science and didn’t wait until months into the pandemic to publicly don a mask for the first time.
Trump’s refusal to endorse mask-wearing to curb the spread of a virus that transmits via respiratory droplet has very likely meant a loss of life as a study from the University of Washington suggests. This past July, the study forecast that deaths could be reduced by over 66 percent with Americans adopting universal masking.
Hopefully, a science-respecting president with Fauci as his right-hand man will mean a return to something resembling normalcy in 2021.
