The nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci joined actor Matthew McConaughey live on Friday to clear up misconceptions around the coronavirus pandemic.
McConaughey interviewed Fauci on Instagram Live and asked him some serious questions about the virus.
The biggest takeaway from Fauci’s talk was for Americans to not let their guards down around mask wearing and other safety precautions.
“We Americans who flock to the beaches, bars and rallies are putting our fellow citizens at risk,” McConaughey said during the chat.
Fauci responded in agreement by saying “it’s totally true.”
“That’s one of the messages we have to keep getting across because most of the people who do that are young and healthy. And if they wound up getting infected it’s unlikely that they’re going to get seriously ill,” Fauci said in response. “So there’s this misperception that says, ‘Hey, if I get infected I’m in a vacuum. I’m not hearing anybody. Let me worry about myself’ – that’s completely incorrect.”
McConaughey said he invited the doctor onto Instagram live because he, like many of his fellow citizens, still had many questions about the virus.
Both had an optimistic outlook on the nation’s future.
“Our country has been though some very very difficult situations. We pulled together after 9/11, this is equivalent to that,” Fauci said. “We’ve got to pull together.”
Even though Fauci took the time to encourage viewers to take face coverings seriously, he said a national mask wearing mandate, like the one proposed by presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden, would be hard to enforce.
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