Dr. Fauci says fully vaxxed people should still 'go the extra mile' and wear face masks in low vaccination areas

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Dr. Fauci says fully vaxxed people should still 'go the extra mile' and wear face masks in low vaccination areas
Facui said Sunday that a decision on booster shots could be made by the end of the summer. Meet The Press/NBC
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said even people who are fully vaccinated should still "go the extra mile" to ensure protection in areas with low vaccination rates.

"Even as good as they are and highly effective, nothing is 100%," Fauci said of vaccines during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday morning.

"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,' Fauci said.

When host Chuck Todd asked about the 10,000 COVID-related deaths the US recorded in June, Fauci emphasized that "no vaccine is perfect," but almost all of the deaths were "avoidable."

"If you look at the number of deaths, about 99.2% of them are unvaccinated. About 0.8% are vaccinated. No vaccine is perfect," Fauci said. "But when you talk about the avoidability of hospitalization and death, Chuck, it's really sad and tragic that most all of these are avoidable and preventable."

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The Delta variant has surged in a few states in the US with low vaccination rates. Missouri, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas last week marked spikes of the strain. CDC data for Nevada, Utah, Missouri, and Arkansas show the states are seeing more hospitalizations amid low vaccination rates.

Health officials have warned in recent weeks that unvaccinated areas face the greatest risk in the face of the new strain. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky last week said about 1,000 counties' vaccination rates are below 30%.

"These communities, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest, are our most vulnerable," Walensky said at a White House press briefing last week.

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