Thursday’s COVID-19 Senate hearing went off the rails on Thursday when Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) confronted Dr. Anthony Fauci about wearing a mask after getting his coronavirus vaccine, saying that it was “just theater.’

Paul expressed his frustration with Fauci that he has ben telling Americans that they may need to wear masks until 2022, pointing to a study that showed that there have been no symptomatic reinfections, according to Fox News.

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“You’re telling everybody to wear a mask whether they’ve had infection or had a vaccine. What I’m saying is they have immunity and everybody agrees they have immunity,” said Paul, who is a physician himself.

“What studies do you have that people who have had the vaccine or had infection are spreading the infection?” he added. “If we’re not spreading the infection isn’t it just theater? You’ve had the vaccine and you’re wearing 2 masks isn’t that theater?”

“Here we go again with the theater, let’s get down to the facts,” Fauci fired back. “When you talk about reinfection and you don’t keep in the concept of variants, that’s an entirely different ballgame. That’s a good reason for a mask.”

He then brought up a South African study by Johnson and Johnson that found those who had been infected with the “wild-type” COVID-19, which is the original strain, had “no protection” when exposed to variants.

placeholder“I agree with you that you very likely would have protection from wild-type for at least six months,” Fauci added.

Paul, however, was not having any of it. He said that there was “no evidence” of significant reinfections of COVID-19 after infection or vaccine.

“You’re not hearing what I’m saying about variants. We’re talking about wild type versus variants,” Fauci said in response.

“What study has found reinfection with severe symptoms with variants? You’re making policy based on conjecture,” Paul shot back.  “You’ve been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. You’re defying everything we know about immunity by telling people to wear a mask that have been vaccinated.”’

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“You want to get rid of vaccine hesitancy? Tell them they can quit wearing their mask after they get a vaccine, instead of telling them the nanny state’s going to be there for three more years and you’ve got to wear a mask forever,” the senator continued. “People don’t want to hear it and there’s no science behind it. If you have immunity you’re wearing a mask to give comfort to others. You’re not wearing a mask because of any science.”