Despite the new guidance, dubious Facebook pages and groups — some of which advocate alternative medicines, conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination messages — have been recently circulating an outdated recommendation on the use of face masks. The pages are sharing a March 8 video clip from CBS’ “60 Minutes” showing Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saying: “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
But at that point in early March, the CDC recommended conserving face masks, which were in short supply, for health care workers and those who had COVID-19 and were showing symptoms. So, Fauci gave an answer that was in line with CDC recommendations at that time.
Here’s what Fauci told Dr. Jon LaPook, chief medical correspondent for CBS News, in the clip circulating on social media:
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.
Since then, the science around the novel coronavirus has evolved, Dr. Dean Winslow, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Health Care, explained in an interview with FactCheck.org.
In early March, so few patients had been tested that public health officials didn’t yet know that people could spread the virus without showing symptoms, said Winslow.
“That was just not known at that point,” he said.
Winslow noted that Fauci appeared to be making two points in the interview. He was pushing back on the idea that a mask could protect the wearer from infection, and he was emphasizing the importance of other measures, such as maintaining a distance of at least six feet between people.
Both of those things still apply, according to the CDC, which explains on its website that the point of wearing a mask “is to protect people around you if you are infected but do not have symptoms.”
In appearances aired on PBS NewsHour on April 3 and May 12, Fauci again noted the importance of physical distancing and, in line with the evolving public health recommendations, added that cloth face coverings should be used in public.
But the Facebook pages didn’t share the more up-to-date interviews. Instead, they shared the old interview without noting the date.
For example, a Facebook page that supports the widely debunked conspiracy-theory video, “Plandemic,” shared the old clip on May 6 with the caption, “Dr. Anthony Fauci: ‘There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.'” That’s the opposite of the advice Fauci was giving by that time
According to Dr Fauci on this 60 minutes clip you only should wear a mask if you are sick. Wearing masks might make you feel better and block a droplet.
March 2020: Dr. Anthony Fauci talks with Dr Jon LaPook about Covid-19
He seems to waffle....as everyone else does. This is why so many don't want to wear masks.
I've come to the conclusion you'll only be protected from disease if you are wearing an n95 mask along with proper wearing and fitting. Wash hands often and don't fiddle with mask while wearing it.
AI
