WATCH: Fauci ADMITS that isolation is harmful to people

Fauci explained why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed protocols Monday and cut the COVID-19 isolation period down to 10 days from five for individuals who are asymptomatic and test positive for COVID-19.

In an interview with CNN's Jim Acosta, the White House's top coronavirus expert conceded that prolonged quarantine for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients "could have a major negative impact on our ability to keep society running."

"The purpose of it was—that given the wave, the extraordinary unprecedented wave of infections that we are experiencing now and will certainly experience more of in the next few weeks—that there is the danger that there will be so many people who are being isolated who are asymptomatic for the full 10 days that you could have a major negative impact on our ability to keep society running," Fauci said.

Fauci said the decision was made, "although it's not completely risk free, of saying let's get that cut in half, so that we can have 50 percent, namely half of the 10 days, and 50 percent of that time, people can actually be out with a mask in society."

"Not all of those cases are going to be severe. In fact many are going to be asymptomatic," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky had stated on Monday, striking similar themes. "We want to make sure there is a mechanism by which we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science."

Less than two weeks before the CDC's latest shift, President Joe Biden issued a morbid warning to unvaccinated Americans, stating they'll experience "a winter of severe illness and death" amid the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

Fauci, however, has acknowledged that the big bad Omicron variant spreading nationwide looks less severe than previous variants of COVID-19.

After calling on Americans to cancel Christmas and Thanksgiving, the White House's pandemic point person advised the public to nix New Year's Eve plans.

Biden's chief medical adviser still pushes vaccinations, claiming the Omicron variant appears to "evade" some of the protection offered by vaccines against the virus. "If you want to be optimally protected, absolutely get a booster," Fauci said.

Fauci also indicated that he would "welcome" the idea of vaccine mandates for domestic air travel within the United States. "Anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome," Fauci commented in an on-air segment Sunday.