Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed mask usage as local governments across the country loosen up restrictions due to improving coronavirus numbers.

Fauci emphasized the importance of wearing masks at this time, but said the length of mask wearing should not be “measured in years.” However, he advised that “we’ll be wearing masks for several, several months.”

“There’s still going to be the important need to wear masks. I think we still need to do that,” Fauci said as he pushed for a safe and gradual reopening of the country.

“When you say need for masks, you mean for quite some time — into the foreseeable future — a year, two years, three years?” host George Stephanopoulos asked.

“I’m not so sure it’s measured in years, George, but I think until we get the level of virus to such a low level in the community, and I had said a projection — and it’s only a projection — that hopefully by the time we get all the people vaccinated, let’s say 70-85% of the people vaccinated, the level of virus in the community could be so low that you could start pulling back a bit on what are stringent public health measures,” he replied. “You don’t want to do it all at once, but I think we’re going to be wearing masks for several, several months into the future.”

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