Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the coronavirus task force for the U.S., said back in March that face masks were not necessary to prevent the spread of Covid19.
“Right now in the Unites States, people should not be walking around with masks,” Fauci told 60 Minutes at the time. “When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better…but it’s not providing the perfect protection people think that it is.”
Now he is arguing that states should be as “forceful as possible” in compelling citizens to wear masks.
“I would urge the leaders — the local political and other leaders — in states and cities and towns to be as forceful as possible in getting your citizenry to wear masks,” Fauci said on Friday.
He says the “real” reason he told Americans not to bother with face masks in March is because they were worried about a run on medical supplies.
Additionally, he says he has zero regrets about the flip-flop.
“I don’t regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm’s way every day to take care of sick people,” Fauci told CBS just this week.
Of course to point these things out and to wonder whether Fauci is saying what he’s saying because of another hidden reason, gets one labeled a “conspiracy theorist.”
Still, we thought it helpful to keep record of the ever-changing positions on face masks because it is purported to be an extremely important subject.