National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Americans may still need to wear masks in 2022 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Fauci said, “You know, I think that’s possible that’s the case.

Fauci said, “You know, because it depends on the level of dynamics of virus that’s in the community, and that’s really important because that gets back to something, again, you said, if you see the level coming down really, really very low, I want it to keep going down to a baseline that’s so low there is virtually no threat.

So if you combine getting most of the people in the country vaccinated with getting the level of virus in the community very, very low, then I believe you’re going to be able to say, you know, for the most part, we don’t necessarily have to wear masks but if we have a level of virus that is at that level that it was months and months ago like 20 thousand per day is a heck of a lot better than it been.

That’s still a very high level of virus in the community.