May 11, 2021: -On Sunday, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said that people might decide to wear masks during certain seasons when respiratory illnesses are more prevalent.

“I think people have been used to the fact that is wearing masks. If you look at the data, it diminishing respiratory diseases; we’ve had practically a non-existent flu season this year because people were doing the kinds of public health things that were directed predominately against Covid-19,” Fauci said.

“So it is conceivable that as we go on a year or two or more from now that in certain seasonal periods when you have respiratory borne viruses such as the flu, people might elect to wear masks to diminish the likelihood that you’ll spread these borne respiratory diseases,” he added.

Fauci’s comments come less than a month after the Biden administration announced a relaxation of federal public health guidance on wearing masks outdoors.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that fully vaccinated people exercise and attend small gatherings outside without wearing a mask. The agency still recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask outdoors when in crowded areas.

“We are at the point right now where we can and start lifting these ordinances and allowing people to resume normal activity. Certainly, outdoors, we should not be putting limits on gatherings anymore, and we should be encouraging people to go outside,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS Sunday program “Face the Nation.”

Gottlieb added that indoor public health measures should also be relaxed in states where coronavirus infections are low, and vaccination rates are high.

“Covid won’t disappear; we are going to have to learn to live with it, but the risks have substantially reduced as a result of vaccination and as a result of immunity that people have acquired through prior infection,” Gottlieb said.

As of Saturday, more than 45% of the U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose, including 33.9% who have been fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.