Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the president, said Sunday that, even though coronavirus vaccines are highly effective, vaccinated people should “go the extra mile” and wear a mask in places of low vaccination rates.
He said that "there would be a good reason" to continue wearing face coverings in a place like Mississippi, which has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, regardless of vaccination status.
“If you put yourself in an environment in which you have a high level of viral dynamics and a very low level of vaccine, you might want to go the extra step and say 'When I'm in that area where there's a considerable degree of viral circulation, I might want to go the extra mile to be cautious enough to make sure that I get the extra added level of protection, even though the vaccines themselves are highly effective,'” Fauci said in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” adding that vaccines are not 100 percent effective.
This comes as the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in India, has begun to spread in the United States.
Local mask advisories have been implemented in areas such as Los Angeles county and St. Louis, Mo. for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in indoor settings amid the spread of the delta variant.
The United States has seen a decline in COVID-19 infections and deaths as access to vaccines has become widely available.
However, Fauci warned of a possible coronavirus surge and said that the pandemic is not over just yet due to the delta variant.
"When you have such a low level of vaccination superimposed upon a variant that has a high degree of efficiency of spread, what you are going to see among undervaccinated regions, be that states, cities or counties, you're going to see these individual types of blips," Fauci told CNN's Don Lemon. "It's almost like it's going to be two Americas."
The delta variant is responsible for 25 percent of all new U.S. cases.