Dr. Fauci predicts face mask requirements on airplanes will never go away: ‘We should be doing it’

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told the Senate they do not believe face masks “add much” protection for airline passengers from COVID-19 because modern airplanes are equipped with sophisticated air filtration systems.

“I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment. It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting,” Kelly said.

“I concur. An aircraft is the safest place you can be. It’s true of all of our aircraft — they all have the same HEPA filters and air flow,” Parker added.

Anything else?

During his interview, Fauci also predicted the Omicron variant will become a “significant stress” on hospital systems in the United States. However, data from South African seemingly contradict Fauci’s prediction.

In fact, data show that while Omicron has led to South Africa’s most significant surge in cases yet, hospitalizations and deaths have not followed — something dramatically different from previous waves.

“In South Africa, we’re thankfully seeing a striking decoupling between new Covid cases and ICU admissions and deaths,” former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb noted.

Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver pointed out Sunday that public health officials “risk squandering credibility” if they enact restrictions because of the Omicron variant given data that suggest Omicron is “milder” than previous COVID-19 variants.

“I don’t know how well it will extrapolate to the rest of the world but the South Africa data is certainly encouraging. I think it’s important for public health officials and journalists to share good news as well as bad news; otherwise, they risk squandering credibility,” Silver said.

“Put it like this: if Omicron *does* prove to be milder after health officials insist there’s ‘no evidence’ it’s milder—when there is evidence, just not proof—they’re going to have a hell of a time getting people to take precautions for the not-so-mild Omega variant or whatever,” he explained.