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Speaking on ABC's This Week, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci says despite a recent uptick in COVID cases he doesn't expect a federal mandate to wear masks again.
Fauci did say there could be recommendations by government agencies to wear masks if there is a "significant uptick."
A new study by the U.K.-based Cochrane organization suggests that masks were ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID. Fauci responded to the study.
"People have commented on that study saying, 'Absolutely masks don't work,' which is absolutely not the case because there are a number of studies that show that masks actually do work," Fauci said. "And there's a lot of confusion where you take a broad series of studies and you look at them in a meta analysis. Only a couple of those studies were specifically looking at COVID. So I think we'd better be careful that that study that people keep talking about can be very, very misleading."
The nation's former top infectious diseases expert is not predicting a COVID tsunami like 2020.
Fauci stepped down from government service last December and is now a professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.