[quesera]

"Masks" meant something different in March than it does now.

Cloth masks were a thing in Asia, but the US had never thought about them much. They were not available for sale.

When Fauci discouraged use of masks among the general public, but implored that they be conserved for medical professionals, he was speaking in the context of PPE. N95 masks, etc.

Sometime in March, people started asking "well do cloth masks work at all"? And there was no consensus answer until (IIRC) early May.

Maybe someone should have said "Hey, we don't know for sure, we've never studied it -- but they use cloth masks in Asia and they have more experience than we do. They certainly can't hurt as long as you recognize clean side/dirty side, and wash them regularly. You can't buy them, but you can make them. Don't make them poorly."

Remember that Fauci was sidelined for a while in there though. And that his job is not public health communications management.

I really don't think you can blame Fauci for the failures here. His messaging, when able to speak, was not that confusing or contradictory. And yet he still got in trouble with the people who wanted him to be less honest. He was simply not able to counter the extreme bloviation and misinformed dishonesty coming from the administration. And he received death threats for trying!

Blame Deborah Birx, a bit, for conflicting signals and bending to pressure. Blame Jerome Adams, for not having the background to separate truth from fiction, and lacking the strength to demand accuracy and clarity. But even those two didn't have much power, their biggest error was lending the appearance of credibility to the broken process which employed them. Blame their boss for having an agenda at odds with direct and honest communication.

Anthony Fauci did not save us, nor did Robert Redfield. We all wish they had. They both spoke honestly when given the chance though, and in a functional government, they (along with the rest of NIAID, CDC, HHS, and OSG) might have given the country a fighting chance.

Or maybe not. Most of the rest of the world is in pretty rough shape too.

[ergocoder]

> Maybe someone should have said "Hey, we don't know for sure, we've never studied it -- but they use cloth masks in Asia and they have more experience than we do

Nah.

Putting any filter between 2 people are going to reduce particle exchange. Even bad filter would do.

Isn't this just physics regardless of whether it's classical or quantum?

Asian countries don't have greater insight. It's common sense. Someone coughs at us. We put anything on our face to reduce the particles reaching us. Somehow you tried to argue that this was a recent scientific discovery.

We can agree to disagree.

The fact remains. Fauci could have easily recommended bandana or any type of face covering. He didn't. He even admitted he lied for the greater good. He didn't even think of bandana. And this is the best person we have in US...

[quesera]

> Putting any filter between 2 people are going to reduce particle exchange. Even bad filter would do.

That's really not true though.

Early speculation included aerosol transmission, which is not effectively stopped by cloth.

Anyone strongly endorsing cloth for aerosol containment would have been wrong, and blamed for misleading the public, and lost their job, probably.

Current estimates put cloth masks at a ~15% reduction in transmission by droplet. This is significant and important and makes them worth wearing! But if it had been aerosols, they would be <1% effective. And if people believed them to be effective, more people would have been infected.

We will disagree on whether Fauci lied. I believe that he did not lie, although I do believe he was duty-bound to speak when no one had perfect information, and that some of the things he said were misinterpreted.

I never read anything from him that communicated "masks do not work". I did read "masks are not perfect, most people don't know how to use them correctly (N95), they are awkward and uncomfortable to use properly, they are essential for health care workers, they are in short supply, and having a false sense of security is dangerous". This is the message I took from him last spring. Although I was definitely aware of the dishonest noise in the air, it was not coming from Fauci.

I wish he had been in possession of perfect information, and had been able to communicate it with perfect clarity, and without interference from batshit-crazy alternaquacks. No one else was better though. Many were far worse.

[ergocoder]

> We will disagree on whether Fauci lied. I believe that he did not lie, although I do believe he was duty-bound to speak when no one had perfect information, and that some of the things he said were misinterpreted.

Two points that are worth repeating;

1. The precautionary principle. We should be more cautious. This is crisis management 101. It was way more likely that masks would help than not.

2. Fauci admitted he lied as in he didn't regret anything because of the PPE shortage. Not because he thought masks didn't work. This implied he believed masks worked but didn't want to say it out loud.

> But if it had been aerosols, they would be <1% effective.

If it was aerosol, many many more people would be infected. It would have been 10x. This was already unlikely back them.

Again, with the lack of data, we should have been more cautious. Not less cautious.

Even aerosol was true, wearing masks would still be better.

"False sense of security" is mostly a myth. It's a pandemic. We could have done both social distancing and wearing masks.

Not sure why you assume wearing masks and other activities are mutually exclusive.

Just because I wear a firefighter suit doesn't mean I will run toward every fire I see. Be real.