Dr. Anthony Fauci has been hailed as a Heron during the coronavirus pandemic , delivering thoughtful wellness advice while most members of the Trump regime have scatter misinformation about covid-19 . But there ’s one area where Fauci allow America down , hindering the public health response and giving the U.S. both the high coronavirus casing count and the bad immortalise destruction toll in the earthly concern . plainly put , Fauci lie about whether masks were helpful in slow up the spread of the computer virus .
Fauci was asked yesterday by financial news show outletThe Streetwhy the U.S. administration did n’t promote mask early on during the pandemic . Fauci , who model on the Trump regime’szombie - likecoronavirus task force , hinted that he knew mask worked , he just wanted any available masks to be saved for health care workers .
“ Well , the reasonableness for that is that we were come to the public health community , and many people were saying this , were touch on that it was at a clock time when personal protective equipment , including the N-95 mask and the surgical masks , were in very short supply , ” Fauci said . “ And we wanted to make certain that the people , namely the wellness care workers , who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way , to take fear of masses who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infect . ”
Photo: (Getty Images)
Fauci did n’t just fail to promote mask early on , he actively discouraged the use of masks , sound out they did n’t work . Americans are now pay the terms because too many people think mask are useless to combat the coronavirus . In realism , masque have been shown to help prevent the gap of covid-19 , as the CDC nowadmits .
All we require to do is look at the things that Fauci was saying back in February — a time before most Americans were hire the threat of covid-19 severely and people like Donald Trump were simulate it was just a problem for the Chinese government .
“ There is no reason for anyone decent now in the United States , with respect to coronavirus , to wear a mask , ” Fauci separate Spectrum News DC onFebruary 14 .
A restaurant guest wears a facemask with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as Fish Tails bar and grill opens for in-person dining, amid the coronavirus pandemic, on 10 March 2025 in Ocean City, MarylandPhoto: (Getty Images)
It was something that Fauci would say repeatedly whenever he give interviews in February , as the pandemic facing pages to countries like Germany , Italy , South Korea , Taiwan , and Japan . And Fauci may not have known it yet , but coronavirus was also spreading speedily in the U.S. By the terminal of February , over20 countrieshad identify the coronavirus within their borders .
Despite being remembered as point - headed during the other days of the crisis in the U.S. , Fauci was incredibly slow to publicly recognize the threat from coronavirus . OnFebruary 17 , he recalled stories of hoi polloi require whether it was safe to travel , ridiculing the approximation that it might not be wise to get on a woodworking plane . But it was unclouded to anyone paying tending to news sensitive outside of the U.S. that the coronavirus would soon be an international trouble .
First , a quick object lesson in late history : Human - to - human infection of the refreshing coronavirus was confirmed on January 21 , Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in public that the health crisis from coronavirus “ must be taken severely , ” onJanuary 21 , over 20 million multitude in China were put into lockdown on January 23 , Disneyland locations in Hong Kong and Shanghai both come together in the last calendar week of January , and countries like Australia were already set up quarantine for some traveler in the first week of February . high-pitched school teachers return to Australia from China were even giving division by Zoom in early February , as Gizmodo reportedat the time .
By mid - February , the pandemic in Italy had gotten so unfit that infirmary were becoming overwhelmed and case count wererising exponentially . The Lombardy part of Italy went into lockdown and onFebruary 23grocery store shelves were stripped bare as people purchase food in a panic .
With all of this drop dead on around the Earth , February 17 was an incredibly late date to be making fun of people who were interested about travel . But that ’s exactly what Fauci did in the pages of USA Today .
“ I was getting calls from citizenry in Sacramento saying , ‘ Can I get on an plane to go to Seattle ? ’ ” Fauci recount USA Today onFebruary 17 . “ Like , what ? What does that got to do with anything ? ”
We now eff that the first identify American dying from covid-19 was onFebruary 6 in San Jose , California . And because the CDC squander the integral calendar month of February withfaulty tests , no one knows just how widespread the disease already was in the U.S. during the first week of February . And it was n’t just in February that Fauci dismissed the scourge . As late as March , Fauci was still take a firm stand that masks were unfit for public health .
“ There ’s no rationality to be walking around with a masque , ” Fauci told 60 Minutes on CBS during an interview that airedMarch 8 . “ When you ’re in the center of an outbreak , weary a masque might make citizenry feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet , but it ’s not ply the everlasting protection that people guess that it is . And , often , there are unintended consequences — mass keep toy with the mask and they keep touching their face . ”
It ’s no surprisal that anti - mask advocates often employ Fauci ’s interview with 60 Minutes when theytry to discreditmasks as an efficient dick on societal media . And platforms like Facebook and Twitter are still satiate with mass who insist that you could actually suffer yourself by wear a masque because you ’re force to inhale carbon dioxide . It ’s a dumb and inaccurate argument , but it’ssurprisingly coarse .
Masks were the can of jokes in early March , as people like Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz infamouslywore a gas maskon the House floor while he go away to vote on the $ 8.3 billion emergency expenditure bill fall on March 4 . Gaetz and other Republicans appeared on Fox News to insist that it was all nothing but hype , something that some commentators likeLaura Ingrahamstill lay claim , despite the fact that ten of yard of Americans are still contracting the virus every single solar day .
Other western countries like the UK were also initially sceptical of masque , leave to a terrible eruption in England , exacerbated by abungled responsefrom Prime Minister Boris Johnson , a man whoeventually survivedhis own binge with covid-19 after being moved to the ICU and give O . The BBC , Britain ’s public broadcaster , even aired anti - mask segments that importune facemasks did nothing to end the spread of coronavirus , including this one from March 22 that ’s still available onYouTube .
The UK presently has over 298,000 cases and at least 41,000 deaths , the fourth worst outbreak in the man . The U.S. has over 2.1 million case and more than 116,000 deaths , with no foretoken of the pandemic slow down .
What would have fall out if Fauci had been fair with Americans back in February , tear down with multitude that the U.S. did n’t have a good provision of facial natural covering for health workers and that any N-95 mask should be reserved for MD and nursemaid ? Fauci could have explicate that while mask worked , they needed to be set aside for health care professional . The government was seizing most of the masks while they were shipped anyway , so it ’s not like most masks were finding their direction to stores .
rather , Fauci and other top authorities officials made playfulness of people who wanted to fag a mask . U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams even told masses on February 29 to stop buying masks because they do n’t work .
“ Seriously people- STOP buy MASKS ! ” Adamstweeted . “ They are NOT efficient in forbid general populace from catching # Coronavirus , but if healthcare provider ca n’t get them to give care for unhinged affected role , it puts them and our communities at risk ! ”
And , as a result , there was mass confusion when the government activity eventually flip and begin to recommend masks for everyone , even if they had to make them at place . The CDC did n’t deepen its direction on mask use until April 3 , lastly recommending that people wear mask , even if they ’re homemade out of fabric .
Fauci ’s refusal to espouse mask has had a real impact on the fashion that Americans perceive the coronavirus fight . And , like everything today , even masks have become a partisan battleground . Roughly 70 % of Democrats say they wear a masque “ every time ” they bequeath the house , according to a poll late last month by theKaiser Family Foundation . liken that with just 37 % of Republicans .
There have been pernicious difference in the ways that each country has fought the coronavirus pandemic . New Zealand closed its borders and implemented a system to test residents . Kiwis then surmount up its track and hunt program to key close contacts , isolating them so that they did n’t get others sick . Taiwan also implemented running and trace procedure , but it put a particular emphasis on masks to curb community spreading . Hong Kong put a heavy emphasis on “ oecumenical masking ” as well , which is credit with keep the gap of covid-19 to a lower limit .
wellness functionary in China , Hong Kong , and Taiwan even endeavor to monish western rural area that they require to wear masks , and it ’s not the break of the American people that they did n’t heed . Americans were hearing from their own health experts , not watch international news .
“ If you are going to a crowded plaza , put on a mask even if you are not sick because others may be , even if they have cough etiquette or sneeze etiquette , they may still get in touching with you , ” Dr. Gabriel Leung , an expert on SARS and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control , said at a press conference in Hong Kong onJanuary 21 , as Gizmodo reported at the time .
But America ’s own health officials , people like Anthony Fauci , were telling Americans that masks were useless . And Americans are going to pay the price in the months and year ahead , as there ’s no guaranty that a covid-19 vaccine will even do work if it ’s formulate . It does n’t count if his heart was in the veracious place in some effort to redeem mask for doctors and nurses , Fauci did literal hurt to public wellness in the United States .
When all is say and done , Fauci might be remembered as a ethnic music torpedo , but he sure has a lot of bloodline on his hands . And none of this is anywhere confining to done .
Anthony FauciCOVID-19
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