Fauci: ‘You Can Expect’ CDC to Change Distancing Recommendations

On Saturday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Today,” White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that he thinks the CDC will change its distancing guidelines for adults, and “I believe you can expect to see some changes in recommendations for a variety of things, workplace, travel, places of worship. Those are going to start rolling out.”

Fauci began by commenting on the CDC revising its distancing guidelines for schools, by saying, “Well, there have been a number of studies, one recently from Massachusetts, that showed if children wear masks consistently and you compare children that are at three feet versus children that are at six feet, there was no difference at all in the infection rate among them. And for that reason, as usual, based on the scientific data and evidence, the CDC has modified their recommendations. So now, children, as long as they continue to wear masks, will be in school at three feet. That doesn’t mean with the teachers. Because they still have to be six feet from the teachers and the teachers still need to be six feet from each other, but the children from each other, three feet is going to be okay from now on.”

Co-host Peter Alexander then asked, “Obviously, a lot of offices, companies are paying close attention to that as well. Do you have any expectation that that could change things for adults, for the way businesses do their job going forward?”

Fauci responded, “I think eventually that’s going to be the case. What the CDC does, is that they try, to the best of their capability, to accumulate good, solid scientific evidence and data, the way they did with children in school. When that data come in, I believe you can expect to see some changes in recommendations for a variety of things, workplace, travel, places of worship. Those are going to start rolling out.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett