Dr. Anthony Fauci said on a podcast for ABC News that President Trump took his past comments on masks “out of context” at the debate on Tuesday:
Fauci says his mask stance was "taken out of context" by Trump https://t.co/WB847fv20l pic.twitter.com/kPwKhln7Sx
— The Hill (@thehill) October 1, 2020
Oh really? Let’s check that, shall we?
Here’s what the president said at the debate:
“Dr. [Anthony] Fauci said the opposite, he very strongly said masks aren’t good and then he changed his mind, he said masks are good,” Trump said.
And here’s Dr. Fauci on March 8, via FactCheck.org when he said, “People should not be walking around with masks”:
LaPook, March 8: There’s a lot of confusion among people, and misinformation, surrounding face masks. Can you discuss that?
Fauci: The masks are important for someone who’s infected to prevent them from infecting someone else… Right now in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks.
LaPook: You’re sure of it? Because people are listening really closely to this.
Fauci: …There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.
LaPook: And can you get some schmutz, sort of staying inside there?
Fauci: Of course, of course. But, when you think masks, you should think of health care providers needing them and people who are ill. The people who, when you look at the films of foreign countries and you see 85% of the people wearing masks — that’s fine, that’s fine. I’m not against it. If you want to do it, that’s fine.
LaPook: But it can lead to a shortage of masks?
Fauci: Exactly, that’s the point. It could lead to a shortage of masks for the people who really need it.
The CDC knew then it was airborne. Why not tell people to wear bandanas or cloth masks?
Dr Fauci said there was "no need" to use masks Mar 8. It's on video tape. Even though CDC already said COVID-19 was transmitted mainly in respiratory droplets to nose, mouth and lungs. https://t.co/j1znlaZ06h
— Laurence (Larry) Boorstein (@LarryBoorstein) October 1, 2020
And it wasn’t just Dr. Fauci. Many experts were telling us not to wear masks and it wasn’t because of PPE shortages:
This isn't accurate either.
All major scientists were saying masks were not essential. They may have had reason to do so, but there was no other context there. https://t.co/ccZ1iplsrm
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) October 1, 2020
Remember this from the Surgeon General of the U.S. on February 29:
Seriously people- STOP BUYING MASKS!
They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!
https://t.co/UxZRwxxKL9— U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) February 29, 2020
They’re gaslighting us:
Health experts are telling healthy people not to wear face masks for coronavirus. So why are so many doing it? https://t.co/LL5ZRW0viH
— TIME (@TIME) March 7, 2020
From the article above and note there’s nothing here about PPE shortages:
“It seems kind of intuitively obvious that if you put something—whether it’s a scarf or a mask—in front of your nose and mouth, that will filter out some of these viruses that are floating around out there,” says Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. The only problem: that’s not likely to be effective against respiratory illnesses like the flu and COVID-19. If it were, “the CDC would have recommended it years ago,” he says. “It doesn’t, because it makes science-based recommendations.”
And from people in Congress, too:
Stop wearing face masks. #coronavirus
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 4, 2020
So, enough of the revisionist BS, please.
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