Fauci asks people to ‘put aside’ concerns of personal liberty and recognize ‘common enemy’ of COVID-19

Chief White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Sunday called on vaccine-hesitant individuals to “put aside” their concerns about personal liberty and recognize the “common enemy” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You have to get the overwhelming proportion of people vaccinated, but you also have to do mitigation, and that gets to the controversial issue of mask wearing, and the mandating of things. Mandating vaccines, for example, for teachers and … personnel in the school,” Fauci said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Fauci reiterated to guest host Nancy Cordes that although breakthrough cases are being seen in vaccinated individuals, it is the unvaccinated who are becoming seriously ill and dying.

“It’s the unvaccinated that are doing that, so we have a lot of tasks. We’ve got to do mitigation. Put aside all of these issues of concern about liberties and personal liberties and realize we have a common enemy and that common enemy is the virus,” Fauci said. “And we really have to go together to get on top of this. Otherwise, we’re going to continue to suffer as we’re seeing right now.”

Cordes also asked Fauci if individuals eligible for a third booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine should get a Moderna shot, regardless of their initials doses, noting a recent a study that found Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is more effect than Pfizer’s at stopping the delta variant.

Fauci, however, disagreed with that suggestion.

“First of all, it’s a preprint study, It hasn’t been fully peer-reviewed and I don’t doubt what they’re seeing, but there are a lot of confounding variables,” he said.