RELATED: If You Take Medication for This, You May Still Need a Mask, CDC Says. During an interview Axios on May 19, Fauci admitted that the act of boarding a plane and jetting off still represents a significant public health risk without the right precautions. He called the situation a “complicated issue” because determining who has actually been immunized remains difficult, and airlines “don’t want to see spread” of COVID-19. “It’s complicated because the people who are vaccinated could easily be on airplanes without a mask because we know you’re protected, whether you’re indoor or outdoor,” Fauci said, adding: “The trouble is that we don’t have vaccine passports, so we don’t know who is vaccinated or not.” RELATED: The CDC Says to “Avoid” Going Here, Even If You’re Vaccinated. However, Fauci believes that the CDC may change its guidelines again fairly soon. “I hope that we get enough people vaccinated that, at least on domestic flights, that it would be a matter of months,” he said. But he clarified that “the issue globally is a different story” due to surges in COVID-19 infections around the world, meaning it might be a while before international flights go maskless.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb While the CDC’s latest recommendations dropped the requirement for masks in many public places, there are still a few areas where masks are required by an executive order signed by President Joe Biden. The rule covers federal buildings, public transportation, anyone above the age of two traveling on commercial vessels, and transit hubs such as airports and train stations. In late April, Biden signed an extension of the mask mandate set to expire on May 11, carrying it through Sept. 13. “At this point, the federal mask mandate for transportation sectors remains in effect,” Patricia Mancha, spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), told USA Today in an email. RELATED: The 2 Places Dr. Fauci Still Won’t Go After Vaccination.
