Official lying about things large and small has been a staple of COVID politics<\/strong>:\u00a0the letters to college students threatening them with arrest if they don\u2019t quarantine, the interstate travel \u201cbans\u201d that were never enforced, the death counts that swept up anybody who died of any cause while infected with COVID.<\/em><\/p>\n Only lately has this reality snuck into public rhetoric<\/strong>\u00a0as leaders in New York, Massachusetts and elsewhere started admitting that their\u00a0moves are more about \u201csignaling\u201d than any practical effect<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And now, as\u00a0The Western Journal’s Kipp Jones reports,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>Fauci is perhaps up to his “signaling” best once again, saying in an interview that the\u00a0COVID-19 vaccines becoming mandatory in some cases is \u201con the table\u201d with regard to international travel, or even in some localities to allow a return to in-person learning at schools.<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking to\u00a0Newsweek<\/a>\u00a0in an interview that was published on Friday, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spoke on the potential for so-called\u00a0immunity passports<\/a>, stating,\u00a0\u201cAnything is on the table. Anything is possible, of course.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Fauci, who presumed president-elect Joe Biden announced last month would serve as the chief medical adviser in a Biden administration,\u00a0Forbes<\/a>\u00a0reported, signaled he would help to form policy for which cases vaccines might become mandatory. But he doesn\u2019t foresee the federal government mandating the vaccines broadly.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not up to me to make a decision. But these are all things that will be discussed [under the Biden administration],\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>he told Newsweek.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fauci<\/a>\u00a0stated with regard to national health matters \u201cwe almost never mandate things federally.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure [the COVID vaccine is] going to be mandatory from a central government standpoint, like federal government mandates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there are going to be individual institutions that I\u2019m sure are going to mandate it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cFor example, influenza and Hepatitis B vaccines are mandated at many hospitals. Here at the NIH [National Institutes of Health], I would not be allowed to see patients if I didn\u2019t get vaccinated every year with flu and get vaccinated once with Hepatitis [B]. I have to get certified every year \u2026 if I didn\u2019t, I couldn\u2019t see patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As far as mandatory vaccinations for schools go, Fauci said he foresees those decisions being made \u201cat the state level and city level.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA citywide school system might require it in some cities but not other cities. And that\u2019s what I mean by things not being done centrally but locally,\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He also speculated some countries might make proof of a vaccine required prior to travel.\u00a0Israel<\/a>, for example, will issue the so-called immunity passports to citizens traveling abroad. Those passports could allow those who have them to avoid COVID testing upon arrival at their destinations.<\/p>\n The U.S. could issue similar immunization passports under a\u00a0Biden<\/a>\u00a0administration and potentially at the recommendation of Fauci.<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, with regard to confusing information about the vaccines which might require those inoculated to remain socially distant and masked, Fauci said that is because it is not yet known if being vaccinated can prevent people from passing along the coronavirus to others.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not know if the vaccines that prevent clinical disease also prevent infection. They very well might, but we have not proven that yet,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>he told Newsweek.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the reason why I keep saying that even though you get vaccinated, we should not eliminate, at all, public health measures like wearing masks because we don\u2019t know yet what the effect [of the vaccine] is on transmissibility.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On the subject of the unknowns about both the coronavirus and now the vaccine, Fauci said \u201cWe don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n A day before his Newsweek interview, Fauci\u00a0predicted<\/a>\u00a0a return to \u201cnormality\u201d by the fall of this year during an interview on MSNBC.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we do it correctly, hopefully, as we get into the end of the summer, the beginning of the fall of 2021, we can start to approach some degree of normality,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/Fauci-1-913x479.jpg?itok=2acZy1Kh\")
<\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n