Anthony Fauci lauds Australia's Covid-19 response, says people 'ridiculed' in US for wearing masks

Lauding Australia's response to handling the coronavirus pandemic, US's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said he "wished" America also adopted a similar approach.

Fauci said Australia was "one of the countries that has done actually quite well" in an interview to the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne's Doherty Institute, as quoted by The Guardian.

"I really wish that we could transplant that kind of mentality here," Fauci said, adding masks in the US have become "a political statement".

He said he would get into "serious trouble" if he walked into a meeting in the White House and used the word "shutdown" or "lockdown", referring to Melbourne striking up the right balance between opening the economy, wearing masks and the lockdown.

"If you walk on the streets of Melbourne, 99.9% of people are wearing masks," Fauci said saying he wished America also went with the same approach.

However, people were "ridiculed" for wearing masks in the US, Fauci said.

"In fact, people were ridiculed for wearing masks. It depended upon what side of a particular political spectrum you were at, which is so painful to me as a physician and a scientist and a public health person," the infectious expert said.