‘He’s Dead Wrong’: Dr. Fauci and Rand Paul Exchange Fire on Masks After Explosive Senate Clash

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and Covid-19 adviser to President Joe Biden, dismissed Sen. Rand Paul as “dead wrong” after the Kentucky Republican confronted him on mask guidance at a Senate hearing.

“Senator Paul has this message that we don’t need masks, which goes against just about everything we know about how to prevent spread of the virus,” Fauci said on CBS This Morning Friday.

Paul repeatedly confronted Fauci on the argument that everyone should continue to wear masks in the United States. The senator pointed to studies showing reinfections of the virus are rare, and asked why those who have gained natural immunity from having the virus, or immunity thanks to a vaccine, are still required to wear a mask.

“He was quoting literature selectively and leaving out important studies which actually show that people actually can get re-infected,” Fauci said on CBS. “His point was that if you’re vaccinated, you shouldn’t be wearing a mask. In fact, as the more people get vaccinated, just — put masks away, it’s theater.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Fauci said, noting a recent paper found that the elderly “have a high incidence of getting re-infected.”

“So he was saying, if you’ve been infected or you’ve been vaccinated, don’t wear a mask, which is completely against all public health tenets. So he’s dead wrong. I mean, I don’t have anything personally against him, but he’s just, quite frankly, incorrect.”

In his own appearance on Fox & Friends, Rand Paul said Fauci was “moving the goalposts” when he pointed out at the hearing that there are people who contracted the original virus and have been reinfected by variants.

“Dr. Fauci has immunity,” Paul said. “He can’t get it again, but he’s wearing a mask because it’s one of his noble lies to convince everybody to wear masks.”

Reinfections are rare, but do happen, according to a recent study.