- Dr. Jeremy Faust, a distinguished emergency medicine physician, confidently states that he has never contracted COVID.
- In his recent insightful blog post, Dr. Faust provides a comprehensive breakdown of when and where he chooses to wear a mask.
- Despite not masking up during matches at the US Open, he still prioritized wearing one in the bathroom for added precaution.
Dr. Jeremy Faust, an esteemed emergency medicine physician and esteemed instructor at Harvard Medical School, confidently denies ever having contracted COVID.
If this is indeed true, Dr. Faust belongs to an extremely small minority within the United States, as recent estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that fewer than 1 in 5 Americans have never experienced a COVID infection.
However, during Dr. Faust’s recent attendance at the US Open—the first since the onset of the pandemic—he chose not to wear a mask while seated in the outdoor stadium. In a recent thought-provoking Inside Medicine blog post, the doctor reveals his strategic approach to mask-wearing.
Despite some tennis players and commentators falling ill with mysterious flu-like symptoms during the tournament, Dr. Faust made the conscious decision not to wear a mask while comfortably seated in the Open’s open-air setting, which he described as “not that crowded.”
Furthermore, he acknowledged not wearing a mask during recent indoor dining experiences with friends, despite the current rise in COVID rates nationwide. (On Labor Day, the White House announced that First Lady Jill Biden had contracted COVID.)
Yet, Dr. Faust recognizes several places where he remains committed to wearing a mask as a precautionary measure against infection, regardless of whether it’s COVID or other airborne viruses:
According to his blog, Dr. Faust continues to wear his mask in the following locations:
- Airplanes, except during specific instances of eating and drinking, which accounts for approximately 5% of the time spent on the plane.
- Other forms of public transportation, such as the New York City subway.
- Cramped public bathrooms, particularly one he encountered at the US Open, described as “indoors, crowded, and kinda gross.”
“Choosing to wear a mask in certain crowded settings while forgoing it in others is not contradictory, nor is it an act of virtue signaling or futile exercise; it is a form of harm reduction,” emphasized Dr. Faust in his post. “By taking this measure and staying vigilant with hand hygiene, I continue to protect myself from the inconveniences of illness, not to mention potential misery and health risks.”
Dr. Faust also stated that he wouldn’t feel “cheated by the universe” if he did contract the virus due to recent risk-taking behavior, such as engaging in a two-hour indoor meal with friends in New York, where he noted the absence of masks.
Recent research indicates that the risk of COVID infection intensifies with prolonged exposure to an infected individual, suggesting that Dr. Faust would be more likely to contract COVID from a friend than from a stranger at the US Open.
Dr. Faust believes that his track record of relative good health can be partly attributed to exercising caution over the past three and a half years. “By picking my battles and effortlessly donning a mask when necessary, I incur no personal cost,” he wrote.
Insider has reached out to Dr. Faust for further insights and commentary.
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