Although masks were not the panacea for the pandemic, the science has consistently proven that masks do, in fact, moderately mitigate the transmission of the coronavirus. But if you listened to Anthony Fauci throughout the pandemic, you would likely have no idea what to think.
In his attempt to do damage control over his battered reputation and credibility, the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director found a friend in Kara Swisher of the New York Times, who presented an unchallenged strawman of his critics, specifically as it pertains to those livid with Fauci’s flip-flopping on the science of masks.
“The people who are giving the ad hominems are saying, ‘Ah, Fauci misled us. First, he said no masks. Then he said masks,'” Fauci said. “Well, let me give you a flash: That’s the way science works. You work with the data you have at the time. It is essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves. That is the nature of science. It is a self-correcting process. And that’s the reason why I say people who then criticize me about that are actually criticizing science. It was not a change because I felt like flip-flopping. It was a change because the evidence changed. The data changed.”
Nope. The evidence did not change. The data did not change. Despite the early assertions of Fauci and the rest of the so-called “experts,” there was always some science backing the hypothesis that masks could mitigate at least some coronavirus transmission.
As the novel coronavirus came to America in January, Canadian infectious disease specialist Mark Loeb noted that a study of the SARS coronavirus outbreak found that any type of mask reduced infections by 85%. Scientists from Hong Kong and the United Kingdom slammed the anti-mask guidance from the World Health Organization in the BMJ, citing evidence that contradicted their insinuation that masks do nothing to prevent coronavirus transmission. Even as I shared here before the CDC and the WHO reversed their mask guidance, a study showing that both cloth and surgical masks do prevent the transmission of similarly sized bacteriophages to the coronavirus was used as evidence by scientists who knew the establishment opposition to masks was greatly overstated.
So no, the evidence did not change, but don’t take my word for it. Instead, listen to none other than Fauci, who conceded that he willfully lied to the public to prevent shortages of masks for healthcare workers.
“We were concerned, the public health community and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply,” Fauci said in June of last year. “And we wanted to make sure that the people, namely, the healthcare workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who, you know, were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected.”
By definition, Fauci did knowingly mislead the public. Instead of telling us, honestly, that we didn’t have enough initial PPE to protect both medical workers and the masses and that those not in healthcare settings should only use the sort of homemade cloth face masks that successfully protected many of us as the pandemic went on, Fauci simply lied to us, assuming that his overnight 180 wouldn’t erode public trust in his credibility. Fauci is lying about his lies about masks, and one only needs to read his own words to believe it.
