Dr. Fauci: It's 'possible' Americans may still be wearing face masks in 2022

Fauci told "CNN's State of the Union" he would feel comfortable pulling back on mask wearing when the overwhelming majority of the population is vaccinated and when the level of community transmission is so low that there is a "minimal threat that you will be exposed to someone who is infected." 

While Fauci noted he can't predict when the U.S. could return to the way it operated during pre-pandemic life, he believes that, by the end of the year, the United States could have "a significant degree of normality beyond what the terrible burden that all of us have been through over the last year."  "As we get into the fall and the winter, by the end of the year, I agree with [President Biden] completely, that we will be approaching a degree of normality," Fauci said. "It may or may not be precisely the way it was in November of 2019 but it’ll be much much better than we’re doing right now."  However, Fauci stressed that it is just an estimate and that "a lot of things can happen to modify that."