“You have to get the overwhelming proportion of people vaccinated, but you also have to do mitigation, and that gets to the controversial issue of mask wearing, and the mandating of things. Mandating vaccines, for example, for teachers and … personnel in the school,” Fauci said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Fauci reiterated to guest host Nancy Cordes that although breakthrough cases are being seen in vaccinated individuals, it is the unvaccinated who are becoming seriously ill and dying.

“It’s the unvaccinated that are doing that, so we have a lot of tasks. We’ve got to do mitigation. Put aside all of these issues of concern about liberties and personal liberties and realize we have a common enemy and that common enemy is the virus,” Fauci said. “And we really have to go together to get on top of this. Otherwise, we’re going to continue to suffer as we’re seeing right now.”