White House: Tampa Bay Buccaneers are invited to visit when it's 'COVID safe'

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be invited to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl victory eventually, at some point in the future, when, hopefully, maybe, the White House will be "COVID-19 safe," but no one really knows when that will be.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said as much Monday when she announced that the champions of Super Bowl LV will be invited to the White House, as well as the 2020 NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

"Very exciting, the outcome of the Super Bowl, I guess, if you're a fan of the Buccaneers," Psaki told reporters at the daily WH press briefing.

"But we will be inviting – I don't have an update if it's happened yet – but I do have an update that we look forward to inviting the Buccaneers, as well as the 2020 NBA champions, the Lakers, to the White House when it is COVID safe, but I don't know when that will take place yet."

Future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady led the Buccaneers to a resounding victory over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, defeating them 31-9 and earning his seventh Super Bowl ring. The Buccaneers also made NFL history as the first-ever team to host and win a Super Bowl in their own city.

It's unclear what Psaki meant by the White House being "COVID safe." If she was referring to enforcing proper social distancing protocols, then it will be up to the White House staff to determine what's appropriate for mask-wearing, sanitization, and other virus safety measures.

If by "COVID safe," however, Psaki meant when things begin to return to normal, when for example the government determines there is no need to wear masks, that could be much longer.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director and top White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday said that if an estimated 70%-85% of the American people are vaccinated against the virus to "a degree of herd immunity," then it might be time for the government to roll back coronavirus health restrictions.

Asked for a time frame on when that might happen by Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Fauci guessed that "if everything falls into the right place and we get this under control, it is conceivable that you might be able to pull back a bit on some of the public health measures as we get into the late fall of this year."

"But there's no guarantee of that," Fauci added.