Dr. Anthony Fauci was seen in Tuesday without a mask on in a high-end Washington DC restaurant, despite the city still enforcing a mask mandate.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was at Cafe Milano in the nation's capitol Tuesday attending a book party for ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl.
Sally Quinn, a novelist who once wrote an erotic novel starring a character inspired by Fauci, said that she noticed Fauci without his mask in the crowd and spoke to him.
Quinn said that Fauci would wear or not wear his mask based on who was near him at the time.
'I said, 'You seem pretty ambivalent about your mask' because no one else was wearing one,' Quinn said. 'He said, 'I just decided that if anyone came up that I didn't know, I would put my mask on.'
Washington's citywide indoor mask mandate doesn't end until Monday, November 22.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases
ABC News' Jonathan Karl launched his new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show at Cafe Milano on Tuesday night
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, was at Cafe Milano in the nation's capitol Tuesday attending a book party for ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl
About 88 percent of the District of Columbia’s adult residents have received at least one vaccine dose, according to city health officials.
Fauci's reported behavior led to outrage from some conservatives.
Sports and politics commentator Clay Travis called Fauci 'such a fraud and should have been fired months ago.'
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who called Fauci a 'Democratic communications operative,' echosed that it's 'past time for Fauci to be fired.'
Quinn said that photographers were hounding the event to try and get snaps of a maskless Fauci, who has been heavily pro-mask throughout the pandemic.
Fauci said in mid-October that Covid-19 cases would need to go 'way down' before vaccinated Americans can attend indoor public gatherings without wearing masks.
Fauci told CNN's State of the Union October 9 that the virus was still spreading too rapidly throughout the country to consider changing recommendations on mask wearing.
'It's about 95,000 [daily cases] as the seven-day average. That's still way too high,' the White House chief medical adviser said.
Sports and political commentator Clay Travis was one of those critical of Fauci's behavior
Republican Senator Tom Cotton continued his call for Fauci to be fired
'We want to get way, way down to... I mean, I like to see it well below 10,000 and even much lower than that,' Fauci said when asked at what threshold the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) might ease rules on indoor mask wearing for vaccinated people.
He added: 'When you're at 95,000 [cases per day], that's still a situation where you have a high degree of dynamic circulation of virus in the community.'
Under current CDC recommendations state fully vaccinated Americans must wear masks indoors if in 'an area of substantial or high transmission.'
The latest data puts more than 96 per cent of the current in an area of 'substantial' and 'high' transmission, the New York Post reported.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN 's State of the Union that the virus was still spreading too rapidly throughout the country to consider changing recommendations on mask wearing
Despite the CDC's recommendations, the federal government only requires masks to be worn on public transportation and in transport hubs like airports and bus stations.
The CDC's guidance on mask wearing changed in late July in response to the threat of the Delta variant.
From May 13 until the new recommendations were published on July 27, vaccinated Americans had been advised that it was safe to forgo wearing a mask indoors.
Fauci was attending the book party of ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl
This was reversed, and new measures were also added, including that fully vaccinated people 'may choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they are immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease from COVID-19' or if they live with someone those descriptions apply to.
The CDC continues to recommend 'universal indoor masking' for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status
Fauci warned that vaccinated Americans to still wear a mask outdoors this winter and offered up hope that Covid-19 deaths will continue their downward trajectory in the next few months.
Fauci - during an interview with Greta Van Susteren - was asked if he expected another surge in Covid cases this winter caused by different variants.
'I strongly suspect that you're going to start seeing the deaths go down similar to the hospitalizations; how quickly they go down and how thoroughly they go down is going to depend a lot on a number of circumstances, which will be influenced by things like the colder weather, people doing things indoors,' Fauci said.
He also stressed that masks should remain in use even by vaccinated people when they step out of their home.
'When you have a lot of infection in the community, even though you're vaccinated, when you are not home but outside in congregate settings in the public, wearing masks, I think would be very prudent,' he said.
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