...American epidemiologist with rotating opinions, warnings about the unlikely, and reassurances that if you wear a mask you won't get COVID, as long as you're wearing multiple masks, assuming wearing a mask is necessary in the first place...famously told Americans via 60 Minutes that there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. In fact, masks are likely even counterproductive, he said, because people don’t wear them correctly, constantly touch their face when wearing them, and the mask may give a false sense of security to wearers that may lessen other practical precautions to avoid exposure, like washing hands or physical distancing.
Months later, he told us that he knew that masks actually would save countless lives, but he was lying to us in March about masks’ effectiveness because wanted to protect the medical mask supply chains for hospital workers. And he had "no regrets" about telling this lie, he told Lawrence O’Donnell, because it was "correct in the context of when" he made the recommendation. Besides, he said, "it soon became clear that homemade masks were as good as the masks that you would buy from surgical supply stores."
I missed that quote last year while following this, but perhaps that’s because the media neglected to fact check the good doctor on this extremely stupid and unscientific thing that he said. I have no doubt that there are many, many scientists and doctors who would go on the record saying that a semi-clean rag you leave lying around your home or in your glovebox and wear loosely around your face is most certainly not "as good" at preventing or slowing respiratory viral spread as a mask purchased in a surgical supply store.
Unless you’re speaking, of course, about the great many doctors and scientists who still maintain the pre-April 2020 scientific consensus that any mask which is practical for use in day-to-day life won’t help much to slow respiratory viral spread anyway, so they’d be equally useless for that purpose. But many people don’t hear from those doctors or about those studies either, because Fauci, the CDC, the WHO (all of whom advised against general public masking in early 2020), along with some power-hungry and self-righteous tech geeks in Silicon Valley who largely curate the information that we imbibe on social media, happen to now collectively find those doctors’ and scientists’ conclusions to be a danger to public health.
Related:
Dr. Fauci: 2021-06-03 Tucker Carlson ROASTS Serial Liar Dr. Fauci ‐ Evidence Implicates Fauci in Dangerous Gain of Function Research – Should be Under Criminal Investigation (VIDEO)
Dr. Fauci: 2021-06-03 If the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis is true, expect a political earthquake
Dr. Fauci: 2021-05-29 We Likely Paid the Ultimate Price for Fauci's Gain-of-Function Research, but Saw None of the Alleged Benefits
Dr. Fauci: 2021-06-03 Tucker Carlson ROASTS Serial Liar Dr. Fauci ‐ Evidence Implicates Fauci in Dangerous Gain of Function Research – Should be Under Criminal Investigation (VIDEO)
Dr. Fauci: 2021-06-03 If the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis is true, expect a political earthquake
Dr. Fauci: 2021-05-29 We Likely Paid the Ultimate Price for Fauci's Gain-of-Function Research, but Saw None of the Alleged Benefits
Related:
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-05-06 Schiff: If Trump Were Removed by Impeachment, Coronavirus Deaths Would Not Be at Daily 9/11 Levels
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-02-21 MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell: ‘Donald Trump Is a Russian Operative'
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-02-02 Lawrence O'Donnell: Trump may have killed Soleimani "to influence Bolton not to testify to the Senate"
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-05-06 Schiff: If Trump Were Removed by Impeachment, Coronavirus Deaths Would Not Be at Daily 9/11 Levels
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-02-21 MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell: ‘Donald Trump Is a Russian Operative'
Lawrence O’Donnell: 2020-02-02 Lawrence O'Donnell: Trump may have killed Soleimani "to influence Bolton not to testify to the Senate"