RELATED: Dr. Fauci Says This Is Now the “Best Case Scenario” for Ending COVID. As more and more states have begun getting rid of some of their COVID restrictions, there’s a fair amount of uncertainty. During a Feb. 16 interview with Reuters, Fauci acknowledged that these lifted policies could have repercussions and cause unnecessary infections, but at the same time, he said that focusing too heavily on continuing strict restrictions could be harmful as well. “Is the impact on mental health, is the impact on development of kids, is the impact on schools—is that balanced against trying to be totally pristine and protecting against infection? I don’t have the right answer to that,” Fauci told the news outlet. Fauci said that the effort to balance protection and the growing pandemic fatigue means that many states are facing tough choices right now, noting that “there is no perfect solution to this.” But the infectious disease expert also said it’s understandable that officials have started pulling back some precautions. And according to Fauci, it’s likely time for the U.S. to do so as a whole. “The fact that the world and the United States and particularly certain parts of the United States are just up to here with COVID—they just really need to somehow get their life back,” he said. “You don’t want to be reckless and throw everything aside, but you’ve got to start inching towards that.” RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. The tide has turned on COVID restrictions. More than 10 states have announced an end to statewide masking policies in just the last week, The New York Times reported. This includes California, whose indoor-mask mandate expired on Feb. 15, and Illinois, whose statewide indoor-mask requirement will be lifted on Feb. 28.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Even CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, recently said that the agency could “soon” deliver updated mitigation guidance, particularly when it comes to masking. On Feb. 15, NBC News reported that the CDC was considering potentially loosening its mask guidelines based on new benchmarks around the rate of severe disease and hospitalizations in a given community. “We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing, when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen,” Walensky explained during a Feb. 16 White House press briefing. “We are assessing the most important factors based on where we are in the pandemic, and we’ll soon put guidance in place that is relevant and encourages prevention measures when they are most needed to protect public health and our hospitals.” Many virus experts, including Fauci, have recently advised against throwing all caution to the wind. During a Feb. 15 interview on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, Fauci warned that we are not “out of the woods” with COVID and that all precautions can’t be lifted yet. “We’ve got to be careful,” he said. “You don’t want to be declaring victory prematurely.” Other experts warn that we could put ourselves in another Omicron situation if we lift too many restrictions at once. “Opening too quickly can lead to unnecessary increases in transmission that will only prolong the current surge and potentially accelerate the pace of a new variant,” John Brownstein, PhD, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. Brownstein added, “This is not the time to let our guard down. Pulling back on restrictions has to be incredibly nuanced and based on robust data produced at the local level.” RELATED: Dr. Fauci Just Said When COVID Restrictions Will Really Be Gone.
