Anthony Fauci at a coronavirus briefing. | AP Photo Fauci: Mask-wearing recommendation under 'very serious consideration'

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed on Tuesday that the White House coronavirus task force is seriously considering guidance that all Americans wear masks to help thwart the spread of the disease.

But Fauci also acknowledged that such a directive has been complicated by the nationwide dearth of personal protective equipment.


"The idea of getting a much more broad, communitywide use of masks outside of the health care setting is under very active discussion at the task force. The CDC group is looking at that very carefully," Fauci told CNN.

"The thing that has inhibited that a bit is to make sure that we don't take away the supply of masks from the health care workers who need them," he continued. "But once we get in a situation where we have enough masks, I believe there will be some very serious consideration about more broadening this recommendation of using masks."

"We're not there yet," Fauci cautioned, but he said he believed the task force was "close to coming to some determination" on whether to expand the administration's recommended mitigation measures to include masks.

"Because if, in fact, a person who may or may not be infected wants to prevent infecting someone else, one of the best ways to do that is with a mask. So perhaps that's the way to go," he said, adding that the subject was "under very active consideration" and would be raised at the task force meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Some public health experts, including former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner and informal administration adviser Scott Gottlieb, have suggested that encouraging the wearing of masks in public could help curb the rapid rate of Covid-19 infection in the United States.

President Donald Trump on Monday said he had taken note of the proposal, outlined in a recent report Gottlieb co-authored, and that it could be possible that Americans will be directed to wear masks "for a short period of time."

"We'll take a look at it. For a period of time, not forever. I mean, you know, we want our country back. We're not going to be wearing masks forever," Trump said at the task force's daily news briefing.

The president also told reporters that "we're getting certainly the number of masks that you'd need" to implement the guidance — an assessment with which Fauci appeared to disagree on Tuesday.

"You don't want to take masks away from the health care providers who are in a real and present danger of getting infected," he said. "That would be the worst thing we do. If we have them covered, then you could look back and say, 'Maybe we need to broaden this.'"